CYPRESS, CA- Cypress women's soccer (14-3-4, 9-2-3 OEC) ended their season with a postseason loss against the Saddleback Bobcats (18-2-3, 11-1-2 OEC) on Tuesday, November 22nd in the third round of the CCCAA SoCal Regional Playoffs, 1-0.
The Chargers entered the playoffs as the #6 seed in the CCCAA bracket and won their first postseason matchup. After qualifying for a bye, Cypress hosted the Antelope Valley Marauders and defeated them with a score of 2-0. The Chargers were then off to face the Saddleback Bobcats for the next round of postseason play. These two OEC teams met in the same setting and playoff round last year where Cypress was the visiting team and won 1-0.
In their second playoff game, both the Chargers and Bobcats excelled at limiting shots on goal for a majority of the game. Near the end of regulation however, the onslaught of opportunities ambushed the goalkeepers on each side. Cypress's goalkeeper, Siriana Gudiño, made continuous diving saves to keep the game scoreless.
At the 78th minute, Cypress fouled Saddleback near the far side corner arc area. Similar to a corner kick, the Bobcats crossed it to the back post where a header landed just out of reach of Gudiño's diving attempt. Trailing, the Chargers bounced back and came close to tying the game in the final 12 minutes.
Cypress put pressure on the Saddleback net forcing the Bobcat goalkeeper to make multiple close saves. With six minutes left, Jassmin Ortiz booted a beautifully placed strike to the top right side of the goal off of a penalty kick from just outside of the box. Saddlebacks goaltender leaped up to punch the shot above the top post and out of play. On that corner kick the Bobcats attempted to clear the ball out of their territory. Abigail Morales recovered the deflection and struck a shot on goal near the left post but it was saved by the diving Saddleback goalkeeper.
The Chargers showed resilience and fight as they tried to tie the game in the final minutes. The statline between the two top CCCAA teams was almost identical when it came to shots, fouls, corner kicks and saves. However, Cypress's season came to a close as they could not find the net in the third round of the postseason.
Cypress women's soccer concludes with another impressive year in the OEC. The Chargers finished 2022 with 14 overall victories and nine being within the conference, landing them in third place.
Midfielder Christine Duarte led the team in scoring with 11 goals and found the net four times in one game against Irvine Valley. On defense, Jassmin Ortiz played strong all season long while also netting six goals and was perfect on penalty kick opportunities being 2-2. Captain Pressli Dillon led the Chargers in the backfield and also scored seven goals with four of them being game winners. Starting in net for 20 games, goalkeeper Siriana Gudiño collected 46 saves and contributed ten solo shutout performances toward the 13 team shutouts.
The Cypress Chargers women's soccer team continue their home undefeated streak with a 6-0-2 record with five victories against conference opponents. Though the team did not repeat their State Championship run from the prior season, the team has many returning freshmen to look forward to. Out of the 22 roster spots, 12 are freshmen that look to grow from the experience of the successful yet short year. Their leadership and full year of play can lead the Cypress club in the upcoming 2023 season.
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