Women's soccer preps for senior weekend
Five OSU careers will come to an end this weekend as Beavers close season with USC, UCLA
Steven Masters
Issue date: 11/2/06 Section: Sports
The Oregon State women's soccer team has three difficult opponents this weekend in Corvallis. Besides meeting a very balanced USC Trojan squad and the Pacific-10 Conference leader in UCLA, the Beavers (8-8-2, 1-6 Pac-10) must deal with the raw emotion that encompasses senior day. Come Sunday against the No. 3 Bruins, the collegiate careers of five OSU seniors will come to an end.
Jen Crump, Melissa Onstad, Kellie Washburn, Lauren Wippel and Tiara Hong will all be playing the final home games of their careers. In what promises to be an overloaded weekend, the five seniors will juggle the traditional senior weekend festivities with two ranked conference powers.
"I think it will be fun with lots of energy," Crump said. "It will be pretty sad but should be good overall."
"My family is coming up and it's going to be extremely sad," Washburn added. "It's been a great four years and I have taken away a lot. I have friends that I will be friends with for the rest of my life and developed a family here."
The final weekend for the group of seniors was supposed to be about more than just them. The Beavers had postseason aspirations before the season began, and this weekend was originally supposed to catapult them into the postseason for the first time since 1994. Once conference play began, the hard reality sunk in and the Beavers quickly followed a split in Arizona with the current six-game losing streak.
"I think there is going to be a lot of emotions come Sunday, but Friday there will still be a lot of excitement under the lights," Wippel said. "There will be a lot of emotions both days but we need to block it out and go play."
With virtually no chance of making the NCAA Tournament, the Beavers will attempt to play spoiler to the No. 22 Trojans on Friday at 5 p.m. While their conference record is misleading, the Trojans (9-3-5, 2-1-4) are working their way toward the postseason. Behind a strong defense anchored by goalie Veronica Simonton, the Women of Troy have produced five scoreless ties on the season.
Jen Crump, Melissa Onstad, Kellie Washburn, Lauren Wippel and Tiara Hong will all be playing the final home games of their careers. In what promises to be an overloaded weekend, the five seniors will juggle the traditional senior weekend festivities with two ranked conference powers.
"I think it will be fun with lots of energy," Crump said. "It will be pretty sad but should be good overall."
"My family is coming up and it's going to be extremely sad," Washburn added. "It's been a great four years and I have taken away a lot. I have friends that I will be friends with for the rest of my life and developed a family here."
The final weekend for the group of seniors was supposed to be about more than just them. The Beavers had postseason aspirations before the season began, and this weekend was originally supposed to catapult them into the postseason for the first time since 1994. Once conference play began, the hard reality sunk in and the Beavers quickly followed a split in Arizona with the current six-game losing streak.
"I think there is going to be a lot of emotions come Sunday, but Friday there will still be a lot of excitement under the lights," Wippel said. "There will be a lot of emotions both days but we need to block it out and go play."
With virtually no chance of making the NCAA Tournament, the Beavers will attempt to play spoiler to the No. 22 Trojans on Friday at 5 p.m. While their conference record is misleading, the Trojans (9-3-5, 2-1-4) are working their way toward the postseason. Behind a strong defense anchored by goalie Veronica Simonton, the Women of Troy have produced five scoreless ties on the season.
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Courtney Carter
posted 11/03/06 @ 8:47 AM PST
Good Luck Ladies! HST...
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