Photo by Shira Oneal-Abend

Story by Sports Information Graduate Assistant Billy Lopez

La Verne, CA – The University of La Verne Leopards opened the 2021 season at Ortmayer Stadium in a non-conference match against the visiting Occidental Tigers, falling 2-0 in a close match.

Season Impact

La Verne falls to 0-1 to start the season. Occidental starts the year 1-0 on the year. 

Close Game Until Late

The Leopards had the first quality chance to score in the game coming in the 17th minute when Rebecca Fischer beat her defender and took a shot from just inside the box but was shut down by goalkeeper, Ingrid Odmark. Shortly after the Tigers forward, Layla Devlin, in the 24th minute took a great feed in the box on a 2-on-1 and could not beat the Leopards keeper McKenzie Maggiore. 

The game would remain tied at 0-0 until the 75th minute of play when Anaise Nugent beat the Leopards' keeper, Evelyn Saldivar, off a feed from Isabella Bonomi that put the Tigers up 1-0. 

The Leopards had two attempts to find the equalizer by Danielle Bennett and Sarah Ramirez but both were saved by Odmark, who stopped all four shots faced. 

The Tigers got their second goal in the 89th minute off a free kick by Nugent who netted her second goal of the game.  

Back To Action

Today marked the first game since November 2, 2019, and the first home game since October 30th, 2019 that the Leopards were able to play due to the cancellation of the 2020 season. 

Next Game 

La Verne will be back in action this Saturday at Redlands in a non-conference game at 7:00 p.m.