Olivet Snaps Hornets' Five-Game Winning Streak with 2-1 Upset at Kalamazoo October 15, 2005

The Kalamazoo College women's soccer team saw its recent 5-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of MIAA opponent Olivet College on Saturday 10/15, as the visiting Comets pulled off a 2-1 upset over the MIAA 3rd-ranked Hornets. The loss drops Kalamazoo to 7-5-1 overall in 2005 (6-4 MIAA), as the Hornets head into their next MIAA contest on Tuesday 10/18 at league-leader Calvin College (4:00pm).

Much like the game at Alma earlier in the week, the Hornets began the game against Olivet looking sluggish and flat, and consequently found themselves immediately warding off a heated Comet attack. Within minutes, Hornet goalkeeper Monisha Berkowski was under heavy fire, and had to make 6 first-half saves off Olivet's 13 shots to keep Kalamazoo in the game. Most of the Hornets' trouble stemmed from the fact that Olivet was sending its defenders forward into the attack, and Kalamazoo's 2 forwards were unable to defend effectively against Olivet's 4 defenders and their strategy. Thus, the Hornet midfield fell apart under the increased pressure, and midfielders and defenders alike had trouble tracking Olivet's players all over the field.

Midway through the first half, Kalamazoo's coaching staff made a bold (and risky) decision and switched the Hornets from their normal 4-4-2 system into a 3-4-3. Designed to be a high-pressure system of play, defensively, the 3-4-3 gave Kalamazoo an additional forward to help contain the Comet defenders and keep them from having the space and time to dribble forward and serve balls into Kalamazoo's penalty area. By leaving 4 players in the midfield, however, the change of systems also required the Hornets to sacrifice a defender, and so the importance of defending from the forward line (and thus, not letting the ball in the back end of the field as much) became paramount.

"Our coaches spent a few minutes on the sidelines midway through the first half, weighing the pros and cons of throwing our players into a system we haven't really used all year long," said Head Coach Laura Passage. "Given the amount of pressure our defenders were under, it almost seemed unfair to take one of them out of the mix... but then again, what we were doing defensively up to that point simply wasn't working. We figured the 3-4-3 might be a way to actually relieve our back line, and force our forwards and midfielders to shoulder more of the load."

With about 20 minutes remaining in the first half, sophomore midfielder Aubrey Parker entered the game as an outside mid, and communicated the change to her teammates. Soon thereafter, sophomore Mara Beverwyk entered the game as a forward, replacing center mid Stephanie Jones... and sophomore central defender Meryl Stout left the back line and became a center mid. It didn't take long for the Hornets to begin breaking down Olivet's possession and ball movement in the back, and a few Kalamazoo offensive chances were created. In the 43rd minute of play, however, the wind was knocked out of Kalamazoo's sails when Olivet scored. Comet reserve Katie Hertrich got on the end of a pass from last week's MIAA Offensive Player of the Week, Stacey Stickney, and Hertrich rocketed a shot into the back of the net, putting Olivet up 1-0.

Kalamazoo responded almost immediately, as Beverwyk scored less than one minute later. After receiving a through pass just outside Olivet's 18-yard-box, Beverwyk took a shot that hit a Comet defender but bounced right back to her foot. She again tried to hit the ball, and this time it ricocheted off Olivet's goalkeeper and seemed to hit Beverwyk in the face. The ball took a strange bounce to the left, and Beverwyk followed it to knock it--one last time--on the ground into the now-open goalmouth, just before a recovering Comet defender got in the way.

Entering the second half at one goal apiece, both teams were focused on scoring the game-winner in the early minutes of the second period. Olivet took advantage in the 50th minute of play, when center midfielder Natalie Lopez won the ball about 25 yards away from Kalamazoo's goal on the right side, and hit an amazing shot that beat Berkowski and hit the top corner of the net. For the rest of the half, Kalamazoo tried to get an equalizer, but Olivet put forth a great defensive effort and nothing materialized. The Hornets' best second-half chance came in the final minutes of play with freshman forward Sarah Arnosky broke free and headed toward goal, but she couldn't get around Olivet's last defender, and the ball was cleared wide. The game ended soon thereafter, and Olivet had earned itself a well-deserved upset victory over Kalamazoo by a final score of 2-1.

For the day, outshot Kalamazoo by a 20-7 margin (9-4 shots on goal), while both teams were even in corner kicks (3) and almost even in fouls (4 for Olivet, 5 for K). Berkowski posted 7 saves during the game, and Olivet's goalkeeper, Bre Bath-Simonson, had to make just 3 saves.