Fallon's Rebecca Mills, left, battles Alliso Wright of North Tahoe for the ball during the Lady Wave's 4-0 win Wednesday at the Edward Arciniega Complex. The Lady Wave visit Spring Creek today.
With six matches remaining, the Fallon girls soccer team has amped up the pressure for the No. 1 seed in the Northern Division I-A.
The Fallon boys, meanwhile, have a tough hill to climb to clinch a berth in the postseason.
The Lady Wave dropped North Tahoe, 4-0, Wednesday in a nonleague match thanks to two goals from Maddie Alegre and Rebecca Mills. The boys fell, 3-1, to North Tahoe and received a goal from Fidel Enriquez.
Fallon, though, kicks off the home stretch matches at 4 p.m. today at Spring Creek and 1 p.m. Saturday at Elko, and a road game at 4 p.m. at Lowry on Tuesday. The boys have the same schedule, but play at home.
The Lady Wave, meanwhile, received a huge gift from Truckee on Tuesday when the Wolverines beat first place South Tahoe. As a result, Fallon sits tied with South Tahoe for first place with 26 points.
Truckee (25) is in second place followed by Elko (19) and Spring Creek (18). Only the top four teams qualify for the playoffs.
The difference this season, though, is the top three clubs are virtual mirror images of each other. Earning the No. 1 seed allows for a better matchup in the first round of the single elimination regional tournament, which Fallon will host Nov. 8-9.
“I think the girls see the vision,” Fallon girls coach Kelly Spicer said. “This is an important part of the league (schedule). We can come home in third, or we can come in first.”
For the Lady Wave, though, the big test comes Oct. 31 at Truckee, a match that could decide the all-important No. 1 seed. Fallon lost to South Tahoe, 3-1, on Sept. 26 leaving the Vikings with the tiebreaker.
“If you make a mistake, you can be in fourth, fifth place like that,” Spicer said. “The biggest thing with lesser opponents is they want to beat you. It could ruin your whole season.”
The boys, however, sit four points back of Lowry for fourth place with six league matches remaining. Truckee is in first with 28 points followed by Sparks (27) and South Tahoe (24) as of Wednesday.
Boys coach Nate Waite said today’s and Saturday’s matches are must wins if the Wave hope to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“I think this weekend will determine if we go, to be honest,” Waite said. “We’ll know then (after the matches). We talked after the game about staying focused. Hopefully we can stay healthy.”
Wednesday’s match against North Tahoe, Waite said, was booked as a warm-up for the playoff run. It allowed Waite to analyze the strengths and weakness of his club heading into the final stretch of the season.
“It accomplished that,” he said.
Moving forward, Waite said he wants to see more combination runs from his forwards and less one-on-one attempts. On the defensive side, he is pleased with the team effort, but wants to transition to more of a team-oriented offensive attack.
“I think we are shooting more than early in the year, which is nice,” Waite said. “The defense has been quite solid, especially Robbie (Davis) and Dylan (Jones). Those two are two of the top defenders in the league, period.”