(Photo by Shane Rodrigues)
By Madison Rubino
La Verne Athletics Communication
LA VERNE, Calif. — Once again La Verne women's soccer team played well enough to give themselves a chance but Alana Hillman scored in the 79th minute and the Occidental Tigers beat the Leopards Wednesday night at Ortmayer Stadium.
The Leopards held strong in their first conference game but fell short. La Verne falls to 1-4-0 overall and 0-1-0 in the SCIAC. Oxy improves to 4-0-0 and 1-0-0
La Verne goalkeeper Heather Seman kept the Leopards in the game with one acrobatic save after another but could not bail out the Leopards when a deflected shot fell to Hillman who blasted it just under the crossbar to put the Tigers in a winning position in the 79th minute.
Moments before the goal, Seman made the save of the game when she leaped to deflect a shot by Kayla Coleman headed towards upper right corner but the Tigers ended up getting the chance they needed on the ensuing corner kick.
Seman finished with six saves in net.
With only 11 minutes left to save the game, the Leopards went three in the back and fielded their most attacking lineup but were unable to find the net.
The Leopards seemed to have all the momentum before the decisive goal. The Leopards drew an incredible five corner kicks in the 15 minutes preceding the goal and had more quality chances, but just couldn't convert.
The Leopards will return to action Saturday at Whittier at 7 p.m.