Rylee Ott, 34, defends a pass from Lowry's Victoria Tirado during Fallon's match against the Lady Buckaroos.
It was a rough match that made the coaches nervous for how close it was, but the Lady Wave soccer team claimed a 1-0 victory, Tuesday, against Fernley’s Lady Vaqueros.
“It was a good game,” said Fallon coach Randy Hines. “It was a little too close for my comfort.”
The teams were evenly matched, constantly exchanging possession and racing across the field. With 11 minutes to spare in the first half, however, Fallon’s Chandler McAlexander saw an opening and sent the ball flying 35 yards into the net over the goalie’s head.
“I’ve been working on it and I just felt like I could take it,” she said. “ ... There probably could have been easier shots I could have made.”
“We’ve been telling our kids, if they’re open inside 30 yards take that shot; let’s test that keeper,” Hines said.
Fallon’s goalie, Samantha Hines, also played a strong game. While the Wave defense kept Fernley from having many opportunities, Hines was a stone wall for blocking their shots — during one play, Fernley broke through Fallon’s defense and a single player charged for the net where Fallon’s goalie deftly stopped it.
“I think that save clinched the win for us,” coach Hines said.
He added the Greenwave did better with possession, but still need to work on it. Hines said he feels things are improving and hopes it will continue to do so going forward.
“Sometimes I think we dribble too much, so we just need more passes to create that possession,” he said.
Fernley coach Tammi Valentine said she it was a good match and both teams played tough, giving it everything they could. She said her team could have talked more on the field, but she was satisfied with how things went.
The Lady Wave plays again tonight, hosting the Truckee Lady Wolverines at 5 p.m. This is also the first league match for the girls’ junior varsity team. Hines said it would be good to see them on the field for a full match.
“That’s gonna to be a real hard game,” Samantha Hines said of Truckee. “We’re going to need to work hard on delaying and not stabbing for the ball.”
The coach said Truckee will be a powerhouse and noted the Lady Wolverines and South Tahoe are the top two teams in the division — he expects they will be hard to defeat and, while he hasn’t seen them play, noted they have had some losses this season, which could be good for Fallon.
“Hopefully our kids come out and play hard,” Hines said. “That’s the thing we’ve been working on is they have to play hard; we can’t go out there and just play lackadaisically, we have to play hard for 80 minutes or we won’t have a chance.”
Wednesday, the Lady Wave faced Lowry in Winnemucca. The match ended in a Lady Bucks sweep, 7-0.
