ORANGE, Calif. (Nov. 2, 2024) – Junior midfielder
Alanis Cervantes (La Habra, Calif. / La Habra) of the Whittier College women's soccer team continued her domination of the Chapman University Panthers by notching a goal and an assist in the 2024 regular season finale at Chapman on Saturday night.
The Poets defeated the Panthers, 3-0, setting up one more meeting in Whittier on Monday night. The Poets have now outscored the Panthers, 6-2, in those games, and Cervantes has had a role in creating five of the six goals. Additionally, Whittier now finds itself on a 6-0 scoring run against Chapman after the Panthers scored the first two goals in the Senior Night meeting back in October.
While Whittier did virtually all of the damage late in its first meeting with Chapman, the women's soccer team, this time, took it to the Panthers early, with all three goals coming within 11 minutes of one another in the first half. Cervantes struck first, beating the opposing keeper off a pass from senior forward
Layla Traylor (Covina, Calif. / Charter Oak). Cervantes then assisted on a
Juliana Hodgson (Fullerton, Calif. / Sunny Hills) goal less than two minutes later to place the momentum firmly in the grasp of the visitors'.
Finally, freshman
Jessica Jensen (Las Vegas, Nev. / Liberty) scored off a dish from sophomore
Madeline Traylor (Covina, Calif. / Charter Oak) to give the Purple & Gold a three-goal lead. Jensen, in a bench role, has put together a four-goal rookie season, which ties her for the team lead with Hodgson. When the final whistle sounded, the Poets managed to put together one of their most efficient offensive performances of the season: three goals on seven shots, this in spite of being outshot by the Panthers at a 3:1 clip.
That made it all the more important for juniors
Emma Tumbarello (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. / Rancho Cucamonga) and
Mya Rodriguez (Visalia, Calif. / El Diamante), two leaders of the Poets' defense, to buckle down when needed to complete the clean sheet. The junior keeper made nine stops in one of her biggest volume games of the season.
The Poets and Panthers will play for a third time this year in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament on Monday, Nov. 4, at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Advance tickets to the game can be purchased
here.
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