MINDEN -- Douglas High's Kim Lefever spent much of Tueday's soccer match against South Tahoe on the bench, and she wasn't thrilled by it.
When coach Fred Schmidt inserted her into the game in
the second half, Lefever knew she needed to be productive, and with a little help from the Vikings, she was.
Lefever scored on a corner kick with 13:22 left in the
match to snap a 2-all tie and give the Tigers a hard-fought 3-2 win.
"I was very surprised it went in," Lefever said after the match. "I was trying to put it about 12 yards from the goal. The wind caught it, and then there was a miscommunication on South Tahoe's part.
"I was getting disappointed that I hadn't played, and
when coach put me in there, I knew he had expectations to do well."
The miscommunication came between South Tahoe goalie Nicole Vidro and one of her teammates, who was lined up on the post, according to South Tahoe coach Julia Russell.
"We had a girl on the pole, and Nicole called for it (the ball)," Russell said. "She stepped out of the way, and the ball went right between them.
"It was disappointing (to lose that way). Douglas has really improved. They have to be feeling really good.
"The girls played hard. We need to get faster in everything we do on the field."
Schmidt was happy with the win because he considered South Tahoe to be one of the best, if not the best, team in the Sierra League.
"The first 20 minutes was some of the best soccer I've seen," he said. "If we can play 80 minutes like that, we'll be around (contending for the playoffs) at the end of the season."
Hannah Sullivan scored six minutes into the contest, and approximately four minutes later, MacKenzie Porter lofted an indirect free kick that barely got over Vidro's head and into the net to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead with 30:50 left in the half.
Over the next 10 minutes, the Tigers' offense slowed down, and South Tahoe got back into the game.
Forward Cybil Robinson blasted a ball over Andrea Bryant's head from 20 yards out to make it 2-1, and South Tahoe scored a fluke goal of its own with 6:10 left in the first half.
Bryant came out after a loose ball and tried to kick it upfield. Instead, the ball bounced off the face of South Tahoe's Becky Brand and rolled into the net, tying the score at 2.
"I thought somebody was going to get beat, and I just wanted to get the ball out," said Bryant, who unofficially had seven saves. "It was just the luck of the draw."
