Both the men’s and the women’s soccer teams have had a fairly successful season, with both of the teams clinching spots in the OAC tournament.
The men earned a spot in the tournament with their 3-0 win over Muskingum Wednesday, bringing the number of OAC wins up to four. This gives them a winning record of 4-3-1 in their conference and an ongoing four game winning streak (9-5-3 overall).
“I think we have definitely improved,” senior Casey Blankenship said. “We haven’t given up too many goals, except for that last game. We keep fighting throughout the 90 minutes and it keeps coming out successful.”
The women also won handily against Muskingum at Bernlohr Stadium Wednesday. The team scored four unanswered goals in the first half alone, giving them a comfortable lead that their opponent was unable to recover from..
The Muskies scored only a single goal in the second half, leaving the final score at 4-1 and giving Capital another win.
The team’s record stands at 5-2-1 in the OAC and 10-7-1 overall.
Senior Natalie Fiorelli scored the first goal of the night in the first 30 minutes and was happy about her team’s performance last night
“First half we played on the edge and did a lot of things we wouldn’t do,” Fiorelli said. “We needed a win. We did what we needed to do, we did it tonight, and we need to do it Saturday.”
The men are moving along on their four game winning streak to face the Capital rivals at Otterbein Saturday Oct. 27. This will be the final game before the post-season tournament.
“It’s a game we look forward to all season long,” senior Tyler Fountain said. “We’ve beaten them every year I’ve been here so far and we plan on continuing to do that on Saturday.”
The confidence gained from their winning streak is definitely present in the players’ attitudes going into the game Saturday, but there is still a lot to focus on for the team.
“We need to come out hard,” Fountain said. “We need to play physical. We need to continue scoring more than one goal a game, not getting scored on first. We need to come in fired up, knowing that it will affect our seed in the OAC tournament.”
The women also play Otterbein this Saturday for their last chance to add another win to their OAC record
“We know it’s a big game,” Fiorelli said. “How we do on Saturday determines our seed in the tournament, and that decides if we get home-field advantage.”
Both games will be played Saturday in Westerville, on Otterbein’s home turf.
The women take the field at 1 p.m. with the men to follow immediately after at 3:30 p.m. This is the final game for both teams before the OAC tournament starts the following Monday, Oct. 29 for the women, and Tuesday, Oct. 30 for the men.
abutts@capital.edu
