After sticking with the No. 6 – seeded Solano College the entire game, a penalty kick in the 89th minute doomed DVC and ended the Vikings season in a 2-1 loss.
Having finished the regular season with a strong 2-0-1 record, DVC qualified for the playoffs and was looking at a lower seed. But the Vikings were surprised to learn they were the No. 11 seed after Sierra, a top team in the Big 8 Conference, had to forfeit 18 of its games due to an ineligible player.
The playoff loss was the first in DVC’s last four games and dropped the Vikings to an overall 10-10-3 on the season.
“Our team played very well,” said Priscilla Opfermann, “and that loss only made our first years get a little taste of what we will be expecting for playoffs come 2009.”
Head coach Cailin Mullins now looks to the next season and will have a talented group of returning players to build on this year’s success.
“We potentially have 14 players returning for next season,” she said, “several of whom had significant playing time this season.”
Leading the way will be top scorer Kristen Elms, who will almost certainly build on her seven-goal season after missing 15 games due to an ankle injury.
She will be joined by Opfermann, who also missed substantial time with a broken fibula.
Jessica Smith and Shannon Cridebring, who combined for five goals during the course of the season, will also be returning.
And with both goal keepers, starter Nina Cefalo, who went down for the season early, and Courtney Hart, who stepped in for Cefalo admirably, the Vikings have a nice core of players to be excited about next year.
“I am confident this team will continue to make progress and will be playing farther into playoffs next year,” Mullins said.
The Vikings had many scoring opportunities throughout the game but had trouble putting them away.
Solano drew first blood, getting a goal off the foot of leading scorer Katie Knopp in the first half. It would be the only score of the first half for either team.
The score remained 1-0 until midway through the second half when DVC evened the score off a free kick by Krystal Moreno, who was assisted by Jessica Robles.
“We worked really hard the week before our first playoff game,” said Opfermann, “but unfortunately all of our hard work during practice did not help the final score.”
Mullins said, “I thought we played better than them for much of the game, but the result obviously doesn’t reflect that.”