The men’s soccer team from Southwestern Oregon Community College lost a tough 1-0 decision at Pierce Community College on Saturday, the lone goal coming off a penalty kick in the 53rd minute.

“We played a fantastic game, one of the best games we’ve played,” Southwestern coach Ray Fabien said. “We are working hard. We’re playing hard.”

Jordan Hanson of Pierce had the goal on the penalty kick.

The Lakers, now 2-6-0, host Tacoma on Friday and Highline on Saturday, their only two home matches in October.

“We have a couple more games at home this week,” Fabien said. “Hopefully we can get a win.”

Women win, lose

Southwestern lost a 2-0 match at division leading Clackamas on Friday, but bounced back to beat Lower Columbia on Saturday.

Hayley Koch and Patti Degerness scored the goals for Clackamas in the Cougars’ win Friday.

The Lakers rebounded by building a 3-1 lead and holding on for a 4-2 victory over Lower Columbia.

Megan Franko and Sarah Droege had first-half goals for Southwestern and Chelsea Hager added a pair of second-half goals. Natasha Sawall had an assist for the Lakers.

Southwestern is 5-5-0 in NWAACC play, fourth place in the South Region.

Volleyball

The Southwestern volleyball team came up short on Friday night against Linn Benton, then suffered another tough loss on Saturday against Chemeketa.

The Lakers took the second set before losing two straight to finalize a victory for Linn Benton, 30-20, 28-30, 30-19, 30-20.

“LBCC was a good team and we needed to control the ball better to be able to score on them,” said coach John Speasl.

Hannah Singleton, Whitney Miller, and Dena Helme each had double digit kills for Southwestern. Singleton made the school’s all-time single-match hitters list with 13 kills, while Miller and Helme had 10 each. Lauren VanBurger also had an solid night for the Lakers with seven digs. Aubri Ann Finch had six digs, while setters Jessica Bond and Van Burger had 18 and 15 assists, respectively.

Saturday night was more of the same dissapointment for Southwestern, hosting the Chemeketa Storm.

Southwestern came out strong taking the first set of the match 30-22, but their victory was short lived. Chemeketa took the next three sets, 30-27, 30-24, 30-22 to defeat the Lakers on their home court.

Though they suffered a loss, the Lakers did many things well on Saturday, Speasl said. Jessica Bond led the way with 20 assists while Miller had another big night with eight kills and 13 digs. Singleton also came up big with six kills and six solo blocks. Helme and Kasey Orr had nine kills each, while Ashley Canup had 11 digs and Finch added 10. Helme also had four aces.

“We played in a series of peaks and valleys — just too many valleys,” said Speasl.

The Lakers fell to 1-4 in league play.

Cross Country

The Southwestern cross country teams competed in their third race of the year on Saturday, traveling to Salem for the Willamette Invite.

Kameron Ulmer led the way for the Lakers with a time of 25:35 for the 8,000-meter race. His time earned him a 54th-place finish overall. Ulmer was only defeated by three Spokane runners for the Community College participants.  Andrew Scott and Josh Frasier also ran solid races for the men with times of 27:12 and 27:13.

The men’s team finished 15th overall with 403 points.

The women’s team had an equally impressive meet. Francesa Frasier ran a strong race for the Lakers finishing in 20:08 to finish 91st. Tracey Melgoza finshed 95th (20:15) while Jesse Ward ran her way to a 103rd place finish (20:43).

Kori Frasier has been assisting Head Coach Dan Neal this year and her presence has made an immediate impact on the program, Neal said.

The Lakers will next travel to Spokane to compete in the Clark Open at Clark College on Saturday, Oct. 6.