Alliance prevails, heads to final four
EDMOND — With a decisive 3-0 win Thursday night, the Oklahoma Alliance will head to Dallas for the 2010 Women’s Premier Soccer League’s (WPSL) final four tournament.
The Alliance (8-1), comprised mostly of former Edmond Soccer Club players, defeated the Phoenix Del Sol (5-2-2) in the Big Sky Conference Championship at the ESC complex in a contest that was fought mostly on the Alliance side of the field.
It didn’t take long for the home team to strike. With only 4 minutes gone in the first half, University of Oklahoma sophomore Dria Hampton put the ball in the net for the first score of the game.
Battling an elbow injury, Hampton had to come out of the game at the 15-minute mark. “She’s been on antibiotics for the last 24 hours and I guess the combination of the medicine and the heat didn’t mix well tonight,” said Alliance head coach Jimmy Hampton. “She didn’t have anything left in her gas tank.”
Fortunately for the Alliance, Hampton’s teammates were running on full.
`With 27:40 remaining in the first half, the Alliance struck again when Bailey Boulware managed to get the ball out of a crowd and into the Phoenix goal, upping the score to 2-0.
OU Sophomore Caitlin Mooney nearly scored with 12 minutes left in the half on a slow roller that just missed right of the goal.
The Del Sol’s only modest attempt at scoring was warded off by Oklahoma State University junior defender Melinda Mercado when she jumped above the crowd with her 5’10” frame and headed a corner kick away from the goal.
The final score of the game came at 44 minutes into the first half when Texas Christian University junior Jordan Calhoun took an assist from Madison Mercado and steered the ball away from the goalkeeper into the upper left corner of the goal. The 3-0 halftime score stayed intact until the end.
“I’ll take this group anywhere in the country and take my chances,” Hampton said as the Alliance will play California’s Ajax America Women team at 7 p.m. Saturday at the University of Texas-Dallas.
Best of luck to our TCU girls: Jordan Calhoun, Kaylie Garcia, Chelsea Cody, and Kelsey Walters
