Jessica Chang
Kelcey Martinson (11) battles for the ball in the quarterfinals of the CIF Tournament, Nov. 17. Despite the Wolverines’ domination in posession time, Westview lost 4-0.

Despite maintaining control of the ball during the majority of the game, Westview field hockey fell to San Pasqual in the CIF quarter-finals, 4-0. After scoring two goals in the first half, the Golden Eagles went on to score another two goals in the second half.

The Eagles challenged the Wolverines with their agility and advanced stick skills. Regardless of the opposing team’s dominance, the Wolverines kept up their aggressiveness throughout the game, constantly pressuring the ball and jabbing it from defenders.

The Eagles used their speed everywhere on the field. They rushed to challenge any opponent that got a hold of the ball.

“I felt like their speed really killed us, especially in their forward line,” Casey Lee (11) said. “But they also had a strong short corner unit so they got to score off of their corners before any of our players could stop them.”

Kelli Gannon, Westview’s former coach, left the team in Coach Aubrey Cline’s hands to coach San Pasqual. One of Cline’s major goals for the final game of the season was to impress Gannon.

“It was a bittersweet moment because when we took the field, our goal was to make her proud but shut her down at the same time,” Lee said.

Even though the Wolverines played well as a team, Cline said that they could work on controlling the commotion within the 16 yard circle, a semi-circle around the goal where players have to be in order to score.

“The game starts to get very chaotic inside that circle,” she said. “We need to calm down and work through that chaos.”

However, considering that Westview had a brand new coach and a few players who were new to the sport, Lindsey Warrick (11) said she and her team were proud of forcing the Eagles to work for their victory. During the game, the Wolverines excelled in maintaining great speed and transitions, which were the results of strict training throughout the season.

Because the team had worked so hard to reach the quarter-finals, Kelcey Martinson (11) said that the team remained strong even through the last five minutes of the game.

“We played that game with an enormous heart,” she said. “Everybody on the team gave 110 percent, and we left everything on the field because that was potentially our last game.”

From their final game, Cline said she hopes the team got an extra opportunity to better their skills.

“We’ve learned and improved after each game, so I can’t wait until next year, when we learn more and become a better team,” Cline said. “Now that I’ve gotten my feet wet and I have more experience with the sport, I can’t wait until next season.”