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BY VICTOR BRADY

In print | Published October 29, 2009

Having won two games in a row to remain tied for the third spot in the Centennial Conference standings, the No. 20 Swarthmore women’s soccer team fell on the road at rival Haverford Tuesday, dropping to 6-3 in Conference, fourth in the standings. The Garnet is now 12-4 on the year.

Having been tied with Haverford for third in the conference at the start of the week at 6-2, the Garnet was unable to control play against the Fords, who improved to 12-2-2, 7-2 CC.

Star Katie Van Aken, the Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Week, buried her ninth goal of the year on a header just 12 minutes into the game, and Haverford added two goals in a span of just over two minutes midway through the second half to cap the scoring.

But even with the loss, the Garnet has clinched its spot in the Centennial Conference playoffs. In fact, because Swarthmore and Dickinson are tied for fourth place, each two wins ahead of sixth place, the entire playoff field has been finalized.

The five-team tournament will include defending champion and No. 13 Johns Hopkins (8-1), Muhlenberg (8-1), Haverford (7-2), Swarthmore (6-3) and Dickinson (6-3).

But, by virtue of the head-to-head loss against Haverford, even if Swarthmore wins on Saturday, and Haverford and Dickinson both lose, the Garnet will remain in fourth place behind the Fords, and will have to win a play-in game against Dickinson on Nov. 4 in order to reach the conference semifinals, which will open on Nov. 7.

A loss by Swarthmore will leave it in fifth place, and the Garnet will travel to fourth-seed Dickinson for the play-in.

The remaining two rounds of the tournament will be played at the site of the first seed.

Against Ursinus and Gettysburg, Swarthmore scored a combined five times, from five different players. Head coach Todd Anckaitis recognizes the importance of spreading the scoring throughout the entire team.

“Fourteen different players have points on our team, 10 different have goals, and 8 different have game-winning goals.  Our team is loaded with players that can score, which makes us dangerous and we’re really finding a groove in the attack,” Anckaitis said. “At this point in the season, we’ve got 23 potential heroes on our team.”

Alyssa Bowie ’12 also finds promise in the Garnet’s diversified scoring. “We expect everybody to have scoring opportunities and to capitalize. It is definitely a different style of play from [other teams] that depend on one person, so if they are having an off-day, it can really mess up the entire team. This puts us in a much better position.”

Though the Garnet was unable to find the back of the net against the Fords, another bright spot for the Garnet has been the emergence of Ariana Spiegel ’13 as a star defender.

Last week, Spiegel helped the Garnet shut out Ursinus 2-0 and held Gettysburg to one goal in its 3-1 victory. Spiegel became the second member of the Garnet defense to receive the Conference’s weekly award, joining Marie Mutryn ’12, who was honored in September.

“It’s a really big honor, but the credit should go to the defense in general. Without everyone doing their part, we wouldn’t have been able to put up those performances,” Spiegel said. Spiegel is used to the limelight. As a four-year varsity starter, she won three state championships in high school.

“[Spiegel] has been really important. Our entire defense has been really great,” Bowie added.

“[Spiegel] plays with a lot of energy and is really tough, which is really important, because our last two opponents have been really physical, and we expect to see that [the rest of the way].”

Hannah Purkey ’11 has also found a new home on the field for the Garnet, moving up from the defense to the midfield, where she shined at Gettysburg, picking up the game-winning goal, her first score of the year.

Purkey thrived against Gettysburg, working all game in the layer in front of the defense and behind the midfield, using tactical skills and field awareness to continually find open lanes, culminating in a blast from the top of the box into the left side of the goal.

The Garnet will wrap up the regular season at 7 p.m. on Saturday at home against Franklin & Marshall (1-8 CC).

Prior to the action, Monica Cody ’10, Maggie DeLorme ’10, Eileen Earl ’10, Julia Luongo ’10, and Taylor Rhodes ’10 will be honored as they prepare to play their final regular season game in garnet and white.

The game will also be available online on the Garnet Sports Network, a live video and audio stream available through the Swarthmore Athletics website, swarthmore.edu/athletics.

Swarthmore will play Dickinson on Wednesday for a spot in the conference semifinals.

The Garnet fell to the Red Devils in the semifinals of the 2008 Centennial Conference Championship by a score of 2-1.

Disclosure Note: Sports Columnist Hannah Purkey is a member of the women’s soccer team but had no role in the production of this article.

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