The 2018 San Diego Mesa women’s soccer team didn’t finish the regular season the way they had hoped.
The Olympians finished with a 10-4-5 overall record and failed to receive an automatic berth into the Southern California Regional Playoffs.
Injuries plagued this team all season long. There were key players that missed significant amounts of time and forced the coaching staff to become creative in finding the right combinations on the field. In a few games, head coach Todd Curran asked players to play out of position. To no surprise, not one player complained about what was being asked from them.
On Tuesday afternoon, due to their strength of schedule, the Olympians were notified that they will be hosting a ‘play-in-game’ this Thursday, November 15 against cross town rival Southwestern College at 7:00 pm.
A “play-in game” is a game at the beginning of a tournament that forces low seeded qualifiers to play each other before the main portion of the tournament begins. Mesa is ranked #14, Southwestern #19. The winner of today’s game will travel and face the #3 seed, Santa Barbara City College on Saturday November 17th at 7 PM.
Southwestern is no stranger to Mesa College having played twice this season. During their first encounter in September, the Jaguars defeated the Olympians at home 2-0. The second match in Chula Vista was no better for the Olympians falling once again 1-0.
“We have to play clean the entire match,” states head coach Todd Curran. “If we play what we are capable of, we should be fine.”
"We have to be careful with the ball and be clean with our possessions,” he added. “We were sloppy during our two games against them. When you play against a quality team, attention to all the little details are important."
The Olympians will get a boost in their defense as team captain Karlyn Ironside returns to the line-up. Ironside has been out of the line up since September 21. She is returning at the best possible time.
“We are excited to have Karlyn back. She brings tremendous leadership on the field and it’s something that we are looking forward to,” states Curran. “She is one of our top defenders and will hopefully give us that extra push to get us through this game.”
All records are thrown out during a play-in-game. Every team at this point is 0-0. Having won two games in a row, watch out for the Olympians. The team is playing extremely well and can be very dangerous in the playoffs.