Mesa Legend - SPORTS - Men’s soccer striving for playoff position

November 15,2005
SPORTS
T-birds going to Nationals

Chris Ramirez
Mesa Legend

Before every game this season, the MCC women’s soccer team circles up, arm in arm, and chants, “We ready, we ready, we ready.” Not only have they proved it all season long, but they proved in their most important game yet on Nov. 5, when they took on Cisco Junior College with the district title and a trip to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament on the line.
The Lady Thunderbirds reached this point by having a monumental regular season. A 14-2-1 record has tied the school record for fewest losses in a season and propelled the team to the top of the standings in the ACCAC.
They are ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA weekly poll and have never ranked lower than No. 7 all season. Goal keepers Monique Wells and Tara Gaffaney combined to allow just eight goals during the regular season while the rest of the team put up 48 against opposing keepers.
Awards were plentiful as Amanda Nance was named the ACCAC Player of the Year and to the All-Region team along with Ashley Straub and Brittany Wilds. Ashley Hale and Michelle Martinez received second team honors and Ree-Ann Fuzy was an honorable mention.
After enjoying a first round bye, MCC faced fierce competition in its two regional playoff matches.
Pima Community College advanced to the semifinal game versus Mesa after beating Chandler-Gilbert Community College 2-0 in a game that featured an actual fight between players in the closing minutes. While there were no physical punches between Pima and Mesa, Jarrett De Cunha delivered a heavy blow when she scored the lone goal with 15 minutes left in the first half.
All six Pima shots on goal were turned away by Wells as Mesa triumphed over Pima for the third time this season.
The Region I championship game against Cochise College was a matinee affair that started at 2 p.m. Cochise was the No. 2 seed in the regional tournament as they also had a 14 win season. Yet it was the T-Birds who prevailed 3-1, despite falling behind 1-0 after the first half. Goals for Mesa were scored by Wilds, Nance, and Sarah Nelson.
The district final featuring Cisco Junior College was the third year in a row the team from Texas traveled to Arizona to play Mesa for the title. MCC won the past two meetings by a combined score of nine goals to one and it would be no different this year as the Thunderbirds topped the Wranglers, 1-0.
It was a game Mesa dominated with aggressive play and an offensive attack led by Nance. However, the game was scoreless with less than two minutes to play when Vanessa Andrade of Mesa scored on a high kick that went right over the Cisco keeper’s head.
From there it was only a matter of MCC fortifying their goal as time expired to hang for the win. Andrade depicted her game winning goal as, “just trying to find the frame.”
The team will now have more than a week to rest and sharpen their skills for the national tournament. It will be held Nov. 17-20, at Paradise Valley Community College.