For the first time in 4 years the Pride team failed to
move out of initial bracket play to reach at least the quarter finals of
the Far West Regional Tournament held in Pleasanton, CA. A
win against Hawaii and two losses against Southern California and
Washington were enough to send the team home early.
The team's first game, a 0-3 loss, was
against the Mission Viejo Magic, the Southern California wild card
team. "The Magic were a very strong team,
containing one national pool player and 2 or 3 regional pool
players" said Bob Duncan, assistant coach for the Pride.
"While at times we played very well, and did have our
chances, we made three errors that cost us".
Having lost the first game, the Pride needed a
win in their second match against the FC Royals, the Washington
State Champions, to have any chance of advancing. In a very
competitive match the Royals eventually won the game, 2-1 in
overtime. "This was a particularly disappointing result for
us," says Head Coach Tom Rowney. "We gave up a sloppy
goal in the first half, pulled our way back into the game with a
super long range effort from Melissa Purvis, dominated most of the
second half and had plenty of chances to put the game beyond reach
before the end of regulation. Another loss-of-possession error at
the end of the first overtime period left us with 5 minutes to pull the
game out of the hat. We simply ran out of time. All credit
to the Royals though, they played with a lot of passion and
commitment."
In the Pride's last game they faced the Hawaii State
Champions, Leihi. The Pride won 2-1 with goals from Saraid
Faville and Britt Shidaker in a game that meant little to either
team. "Overall, our performances were a little
disappointing," says Tom Rowney. "Even though we were
without our regular sweeper, Kellen Todd-Quinn (who is recovering
from a knee injury) and another of our defending players was just
getting back from a calf injurty, I thought we had a good chance
of getting through the round robin play and into single
elimination. I don't think we played badly, we just didn't
play as well as we could, and we made some mistakes that cost us
dearly. Hopefully, we'll be back next year to give it one
more shot." The Pride team had previously reached the Quarter
Finals (1997,1998) and the Semi-Finals (1999) of the tournament.
