Despite winning their fifth consecutive Bay Valley Conference Championship, the Los Medanos Women’s soccer team’s season ended in the opening round of the NorCal playoffs for the third straight year.
The Modesto College Pirates ended the Mustang’s season with a final score of 3-1 with two second-half goals being the nails in the coffin to LMC’s season.
In the playoff loss, Head Coach Zach Sullivan said many key players from his team were missing for playoffs. Injuries, poor grades and other factors all played a role in the Mustangs opening round playoff loss.
“We only had 12 players available for our playoff game,” Sullivan said. “We battled very hard despite missing many key players.”
The Mustang’s women’s soccer team struggled early on in the season. They entered conference play sporting a sub .500 record at 2-5-2. However, come conference play, the Mustangs were able to turn around their season and were able to climb back into the NorCal playoff race. Head coach Zach Sullivan said the team “found [their] stride and built chemistry later in the season.”
With this string of momentum, the Mustangs ended their season with a 14-5-2 record headed into playoffs.
However, Sullivan noted the BVC isn’t the strongest conference for getting ready for playoffs. The Mustangs have won the BVC title for the past five years and have not lost a conference match in the last three.
“Our conference isn’t overall very strong,” Sullivan said. “We try to play top teams in the preseason to prepare us for the playoffs.”
Despite this, the Mustangs still played well against some of the top women’s community college soccer programs in northern California. This includes tough but close losses to San Francisco City College, who reached the final four of the NorCal playoffs, and Cosumnes River, who were one of two teams to advance to state playoffs.
Four members of the LMC women’s soccer team were honored as best at their position in the BVC. Briana Garcia won Forward of the Year, Ari Chavez took home Midfielder of the Year, Liv Kamm achieved Defender of the Year and Zach Sullivan was named Coach of the Year.
“Briana scored a lot of important goals, especially late in the season. Ari is a leader on the field and Liv Kamm [is] a great 1v1 defender,” Sullivan said.
Next season, Sullivan wants to do what he can to try and get his women’s soccer team past the first round of NorCal playoffs. He’s looking to have more depth on next year’s squad and carry a bigger roster in case players are unable to play, like this year.
“Depth is the key to success in the playoffs and we’ve always had issues with that,” Sullivan said. He added, “We are going to play an even more difficult pre-season next season to prepare for playoffs.”
