Caltech Women's soccer fought valiantly as it hosted the Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Wednesday in the Pasadena sun.
"The players performed really well against a very strong Division-III team," Head Coach Scott Wilson said. "We take a lot of positives from the performance and go into the next block of games with confidence."
Junior Alexa Baxter (Cupertino, Calif. / Monta Vista) opened the scoring in the 25th minute with her first goal of the season. Senior defender Meher Banik (Foster City, Calif. / Aragon) sent a 20-yard right-to-left service from above the 18-yard box to the CMS penalty dot, finding Baxter for a header to the bottom left corner of the goal.
"Really happy for Alexa to get her 1st goal of the season, Wilson said. "She's improved her overall game so much and it's great to see her get a reward for her hard work. The delivery from Meher was perfect and she's shown that to be a really strong area of her game."
Junior Haleigh Gardner (San Ramon, Calif. / California) kept the Beavers in the game with an incredible 11 saves, 10 of them in the first half. In the 22nd minute with the game scoreless, she caught a one-timer from the top-center of the six-yard box. That effort may have swayed momentum in the Athena's favor had it found the back of the net. Instead, it was the Beavers who claimed the early momentum with Baxter's goal just minutes later.
Gardner took the top spot on the SCIAC saves leaderboard with her performance on Wednesday. She now has 51 on the season.
Caltech travels to the University of La Verne for its next match Saturday, Oct. 11 under the lights at 7pm.
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