Stanislaus women overcome tough days to reach national soccer quarterfinal

For nearly two weeks, Cal State Stanislaus was on the road to nowhere.

Each day in early November, coaches and members of the women’s soccer team would show up to practice, run through their drills and wonder if what they were doing would lead to anything.

The Warriors failed to qualify for their conference tournament and were hoping for an at-large berth into the NCAA Division II Tournament on the merit of their play the first half of the season.

A month earlier, they were 11-1, ranked No. 7 in the country and scoring goals with ease. But a four-game scoreless and winless streak cost them a place in the six-team California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament and cast doubt on their postseason future.

Even worse, Warrior Stadium on their Turlock campus had been chosen as the site of the CCAA Tournament. Essentially, they were forced to host a house party but weren’t allowed to participate in the festivities.

“I did not go and watch,” Stanislaus goalie Chelsea Lewandowski said. “It was obviously a bummer.”

Through those “agonizing” days, the team never lost hope, was awarded a spot in the NCAA Tournament and now finds itself a win away from the national semifinals heading into their noon contest Sunday against Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo.

“It was just a matter of everyone staying positive,” coach Gabe Bolton said. “We had the talent to score goals, no question about that. We just hit a little bit of a slump.”

Lewandowski, who’s given up one goal in six games, said the team made the most of that dead period from the time the regular season ended to when the NCAA came calling.

“The main focus was improving and making ourselves better as a team,” said the junior from Fair Oaks.

Though a goalkeeper’s margin for error is razor-thin when your team isn’t scoring, Lewandowski said felt a little “guilty” during the losing streak, thinking about the seniors whose final season would end without a tournament berth.

But the tight-knit group hung together, worked through the issues on the field and have strung together three impressive postseason road victories against Seattle Pacific, Western Washington and Cal Poly Pomona.

“We’re all good friends, so I feel like there’s a chemistry,” Lewandowski said. “If there was a mistake, we’d just move on.”

Bolton said he felt the dark days of early November actually helped his squad.

“Because we had no one to prepare for, it allowed us to focus on us and to get better in different phases of the game,” he said.

They will need every phase against Colorado School of Mines to advance to the Final Four, which will be played Dec. 4-6 in Louisville, Ky.

The Orediggers have lost once – 2-1 to Regis (Colo.) on Oct. 15 – and have allowed one goal since. Colorado, ranked No. 1 in the South Central Region, has given up six goals while going 16-1-5, including a victory on penalty kicks against Texas A&M-Commerce on Friday.

Stanislaus, meanwhile, has returned to its scoring ways with nine goals in the last five games, including two by Enochs High School graduate Kirsten Coleman in Friday’s 2-0 victory over Pomona.

“They’re playing their best soccer right now,” Bolton said. “It was grueling watching those teams play (in the CCAA Tournament). It was agonizing. I’m really proud of our toughness.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2014 at 11:04 PM with the headline "Stanislaus women overcome tough days to reach national soccer quarterfinal."