Women’s Soccer Highlight – September 28

Caltech Women’s Soccer team had their second home game of the season, their first home game where Caltech students can watch, this past Saturday in the Caltech North Field against La Verne. The starting team, Sophie Steven (CS ‘26, Venerable), Ellie Yamada (BE ‘27, Ricketts), Marie Choi-Schattle (ME ‘27, Fleming), Georgia Malueg (CS/BEM ‘25, Fleming), Juni Polansky (BE ‘25, Lloyd), Anusha Chatha (pre-frosh ‘28, ?), Jennifer Solgaard (EE ‘25, Lloyd), Aurelia Kuester (BE ‘27, Fleming), Mia Gallo (ME ‘25, Venerable), Katherine Marquis (ACM ‘25, Lloyd), and Meher Banik (CS ‘26, Fleming), lined up and immediately got to putting their practice to work.

Right off the bat, they were putting pressure on La Verne, forcing them to pass too early, or stealing the balls before they could pass them. La Verne really loved going down the right side, putting defender Anusha Chatha, the only starting pre-frosh, in the spotlight. Anusha did not disappoint, often sending the ball down to the middles and forwards, trusting them to receive her passes.

However, as number 25 Mia Gallo showed us today, anyone on the field can defend. Multiple times, the middle player would back up and defend her goalpost. During a forward push from La Verne, Mia got the ball out of the danger zone before it could reach our goalie, Sophie Steven.

Immediately, La Verne was putting pressure on Caltech. Even when La Verne managed to pass defense, Sophie Steven and Haleigh Gardener, our goalies, managed to get amazing saves from faster-than-lightning strikes coming from La Verne strikers. Then both would blast the ball to the other side of the field, benefiting her forwards greatly. If you thought one save was the end of Sophie’s and Haleigh’s contributions to the game, then you are far from right. Throughout the first half of this game, Sophie and Haleigh had a total of 10 saves, some of which were within seconds of each other during a chaotic fight for the ball near the goal, a situation that had all of us sitting in the bleachers at the edge of our seats. Multiple other players, like Meher, Georgia, and Katherine, had memorable saves throughout the game.

There are two sides to this game, defense and offense, and many players showed amazing offense, like number nine Marie Choi-Shattle with three speedy shots at the goal, and Anusha with accurate throw-ins for her teammates.

Unfortunately, Caltech did not get the game they were expecting, but we were able to speak to team captain Meher Banik, who had amazing saves and put pressure on La Verne the whole game, about her experience as a new captain so far. As a captain and main influence on her team, she believes that “[they] are going to turn it around” after everyone gets “into their rhythm of being back into classes.” She is excited for this season and is in good spirits after their great game against Occidental. When asked if she has a pre-game routine, she enthusiastically shared that she “always eats a hot pocket” before her game, how fun!

If you’d like to support Caltech Women’s Soccer, come watch their next home game against Redlands on Wednesday, October 9 at 4:00 PM. Go Tech!

[Editor’s Note: The final score was 0-4 in favor of La Verne.]