Knights' winning streak ends

ANCHORAGE — After winning 10 straight games in regular season play and setting a Region III record, and after suffocating the Wasilla Warriors 3-1 to take the region title, the Colony girls' soccer team's streak ended.

The Knights team was shut out 3-0 by Dimond, in their first game of the 2001 ASAA State High School Soccer Championships, on Thursday night.

"It was a real disappointment," Knights coach Lori Miner said.

It wasn't so much that the Lynx stifled Colony's top scorers: Sam Gatto, Kelly Quinn, Kristina Klapperich and Teresa Hill. It was more like the Knights just didn't show up.

"I didn't come with a team that wanted to win," Miner said.

The day started out a mess. Before the girls could even play, parents and coaches had to clean the field.

Mark Best, father of senior Knights player Anna Best, picked up two-inch bolts, large rocks, bottles, plastic wire ties and a bunch of other junk.

"The field was atrocious," Best said. "We worked on it for two hours. If the girls fell on one of those wire ties, it would be like falling on needles."

The nets weren't fastened to the posts, either.

Then, there was a scheduling problem. The Dimond track team was practicing on the field. It seemed as if they had no idea a state game was going to be held there.

After cleaning the field and getting the track team off it, there was another hurdle — no ball shaggers.

Parents and coaches had to search out volunteers from the small crowd of spectators to shag balls during the game.

It was the first time Dimond and Colony met all season. The two teams had a game scheduled early on, but it was canceled because of snow.

Miner said her team's 10-0 regular season record was a result of talented athletes and good coaching staff. She co-coaches with trainer Ed Powell.

Powell has been working with some of the Colony girls for 10 years. Miner has been coaching them for seven.

"We instill on them to take it one game at a time," Miner said.

Last year the Knights placed second in state, losing out to Palmer 2-1. The year before they won the state championship.

They were looking to repeat that win. But first they had to get by the Dimond Lynx.

With a cold wind blowing off the inlet, and dark clouds threatening rain, both teams shivered through 25 minutes of play before someone struck.

It was Lynx's Liana Schmidt.

The ball took a big bounce over goalie Julie Coston's

head, and, basically, what Schmidt did was follow it into the net.

Meanwhile, Miner and Powell were shouting from the sidelines; "You've gone defensive!" "Play the midfield!" "Compress, ladies! Compress!"

The half ended with Dimond up 1-0.

Miner and Powell told the girls at the half that they weren't playing as if they wanted to win.

"You gotta want this more than anything you've wanted to this point," Powell told them.

He said they weren't keeping the ball low to the ground. They weren't making use of the one and two touch passes they had learned, and they weren't communicating with each other.

"Someone needs to take charge, put the ball in the net," Miner said. "Right now it's Dimond, the team in maroon. It's not us. I think we got two shots on goal the whole first half."

But the second part of the game went even worse for the Knights than the first.

The Lynx got two more goals — one from Amy Ayer, and one from Ashley Straley.

By that time the Colony girls were so desperate for a goal that they started to make mistakes.

Junior Carly Thaggard even lifted her hands to block a pass. Afterward, she glanced at her coaches, a look of embarrassment on her face.

Miner said one reason the girls had a tough time with Dimond is that the caliber of competition at state is higher than at regions.

"We can be the big bully at school," she said. "But we come out here and we're not so big anymore."