One week after the cross country team reached immortality, the men’s soccer team hoped to continue on their journey towards doing the same. Their season, however, came to an abrupt end in the SoCal championship. The women’s basketball team also looked to bounce back from losing in the finals of their tournament as they competed in the Ventura College Tournament over the weekend. Continue below for everything that happened this week in Mountie sports.
MEN’S SOCCER
The men dominated in the SoCal Semifinals against College of the Desert on Tuesday, shutting them down 6-0. Giovanni Garcia started things early with an unassisted goal. They added two more goals in the first half by Alan Piceno and Omar Alcala on assists by Marty Raygoza and James Coe. Alcala would score again in the 67th minute. Alfonso Lopez and Coe would finish off the scoring with two late goals on assists by Herminio Padilla and Spencer Hines. Alain Hernandez was a perfect 4-4 in save opportunities.
They would then see their season end on Saturday in the SoCal finals against Golden West, 2-0. The offense just could not get going and the soccer team will be held out of the final four for the first time in 12 years. The men’s soccer team finished their season with an 18-4-3 record.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The women continued their great start to the season this weekend in the Ventura College Tournament. They blew out Laney on Friday, 75-45. Natalia Shpegel led the balanced attack with her 18 points. Tiana Douglas was great off the bench, grabbing 14 rebounds. Tianna Burrell was feeding everyone with six assists. On defense it was Aujanae Mayes leading the way with her five steals, while Jade Hughes and Mya Victor had three blocks each.
They had a taste of a close game on Saturday with a narrow 62-60 victory over Canyons. Trailing by one, Shpegel had the game winning three-point play with 10 seconds left. Hughes would then come up with the game-ending steal with two seconds left to secure a great win for the Mounties. Burrell was the leading scorer this time with 14 points. Hughes pulled down ten rebounds and Alexis Sanchez had five assists off the bench. Sanchez and Shpegel each had four steals as well, with Burrell getting three blocks.
The Mounties would dominate defensively on Sunday, defeating the hosts of the tournament 46-27. Ventura was held to single digits in each of the final three quarters. Burrell had more than one-third of the points with 18. She finished a rebound shy of a double-double with nine rebounds. Mayes, Sanchez, and Lauryn Manns all contributed with three assists. Mayes had five steals and Victor had three blocks. The women will look to continue their great start on Thursday, Nov. 29 against Solano in the College of the Sequoias Tournament.