The Lady Wave find their groove

Among the Greenwave teams that came away with a winning streak last week, the girls varsity soccer team won consecutive home games against Spring Creek and Elko on Friday and Saturday.

“The girls are starting to come together,” said head coach Kelly Spicer, “and I think they’re starting to finally believe that they’re a good team. That’s the philosophy. Even when we’re down in numbers, they still go out and fight.”

The Wave had its first victory of the weekend against Spring Creek on Friday with a narrow 3-2 win that had fans anxious to see if the girls would be able to maintain their lead to the very end.

The Lady Wave’s next game is a home game against Fernley today at 5 p.m.

“The last five minutes of the game, we make it interesting,” Spicer said excitedly after the game against the Spartans, “no matter who we’re playing.”

The first goal of the match against the Spartans went to senior Rebecca mills, one of the leaders in scoring in the league, who dropped the ball in with a high angle kick that the Spartans’ goalie couldn’t possibly snatch from just below the top of the goal.

Fallon rushed to an early 3-0 lead in the first three minutes after sophomore Caitlyn Welch repeated Mills’ style of scoring from the opposite corner with another high arc kick that was impossible to even touch and Mills rushed the Spartans’ defense for her second goal of the game.

The match was also characterized by aggressiveness on both sides, particularly with Wave senior Macy Meyers who took a number of hard falls against the Spartans’ offense but managed to swiftly get back up each time and continued to charge.

The Wave nearly had a fourth goal until junior Zoey Swisher was cut off by two Spartan defensive blockers.

Spring Creek managed to nearly come from behind in the second half, with the second of their two goals scored only five minutes from the end of the match and a really tight defense that prevented any significant breakaways by the Wave. Nonetheless, the Wave took the game 3-2.

“One thing about Spring Creek is they’re well coached,” Spicer said. “They’re like us, and they’re going to fight until that last whistle blows.”

On Saturday, Spicer thought the game against Elko was going to be particularly interesting because of Elko’s win against Fernley on Friday, as well as Elko’s reputation to win against Fallon in the past.

“Elko’s one of those teams that you play that’s like, they’re not better than us but for some reason they beat us,” Spicer said honestly from his experience.

Spicer didn’t expect the girls to win against the Indians, let alone by a shutout of 3-0.

The Wave took yet another early lead in this game with the first goal of the match by Mills, the only goal of the first half that left it surprisingly uneventful despite some hard falls on both sides and an impressive fight for control.

Although the Indians weren’t able to successfully break away through the Wave defense, they still made the Wave fight for their next two goals. Meyers stood up to the equally aggressive Indians defense, fighting off two defenders for a sliding kick at the left side of the goalpost and scoring at the 15 minute mark.

It was junior Savannah Sweeney that cinched the shutout with the Wave’s final goal at the eight minute mark.

The Indians had numbers in their favor with more of their experienced juniors and seniors able to take the field while the Wave was down to 14 players, according to Spicer. Elko had several impressive breakaways, particularly toward the end of the second half by senior Luz Rodriguez, who was able to stand up to Wave senior Kayla Biggs, knocking her breathless on a breakaway that was then stolen by Sweeney.

The pattern of one Wave girl being willing to take the hits from the taller Indians players with the faith that one of the Wave’s defenders would be able to intervene after the crash slowed down the breakaway was a frequent one throughout the match. It kept things interesting to the last minute.

The Wave left their matches at 5-4-1 overall and 3-2-1 in league play. Spring Creek has no listed record, while Elko is 5-9 overall and 2-4 in league play.

“This is what you call a team win,” Spicer said. “Everybody did what they had to do to step it up.”