John Westberg
At the beginning of the year, head coach Steve Aristotelous knew he had a good women’s soccer team this year, even comparable to the 2008 team that ranked 4th in the nation and made it to the State final four. This year the Women’s Soccer team has played great winning 13 games, losing none with one tie verses Santa Rosa. The Pirates has been nationally ranked in the top 10 every week this year and is now ranked first in California in the latest rankings by the California Community College Athletic Association (link)
Something more fascinating is the fact that MJC has had 21 players score a point. This speaks to the unbelievable depth that the Women’s team has featured this year. 13 different players have scored at least one goal with Yaritza Arista leading the team with 12 goals. Harleen Pabla is second on the team with nine goals and Jenna Viss third with eight goals. 16 different players have recorded an assist and Arista leads the team with nine.
Elizabeth Amaya has risen as the feature Goal Keeper only allowing nine goals in 14 games, recording 58 saves, and a GAA of .7472. Amaya and the Pirates defense have contributed to seven shutouts.
The Pirates have seven games remaining in the season all against Big 8 competition. Modesto’s toughest matchups will come against Santa Rosa on October 31st and Sierra (8-4-2) on November 7th. Santa Rosa (8-4-1) handed Modesto their only non-win with a 2-2 tie on October 3rd. MJC’s next game will be at Sacramento (3-9-1) on October 21st at 6:00PM.