The Southwestern Oregon Community College women’s soccer team got its ninth win in 11 matches, beating host Olympic 2-0 on Saturday.

“It was an important win on a long road trip,” Southwestern coach Shaun Kohn said. “We passed a number of tests this weekend — lots of travel, getting in late the night before we played Olympic after a tough win over Yakima Valley.

“A the end of the day, we drove home with two wins and the six points (in the standings) and we can’t do any better than that.”

Southwestern improved to 9-5-0 in the NWAACC South Region standings after starting the league season 0-3. The Lakers are battling Lane and Clark for the final two playoff spots from the region with four games remaining.

Clackamas leads the South with a 13-0-1 record, while Lane is 10-3-1 (31 points) and Clark 8-2-3 (27 points). The Lakers also have 27 points, and play Clark on the back end of a two-game road trip this weekend. Southwestern is at Bellevue on Friday and Clark on Saturday.

Against Olympic, the Lakers got a goal in each half.

Rebecca Fanter got the Lakers on the board early when she challenged a pass to Olympic’s goalkeeper and the keeper’s attempt to clear the ball bounced off Fanter. The Laker forward then won a footrace with the keeper and put the ball in the net eight minutes into the game.

Chelsea Hager knocked in a penalty kick in the 58th minute to provide an insurance goal for the Lakers, who out-shot Olympic 32-2 on the day. Kate Tuers recorded the shutout.

“We’re continuing to improve and we’re doing the small things better and better,” Kohn said. “We will need to have a good solid week of training as we prepare for another weekend on the road.”

Men tie

Southwestern’s men tied Olympic 2-2 on Saturday.

Scott Johnson scored on a penalty kick in the 42nd minute and Euodor Guizar had a goal in the 75th for the Lakers to salvage the tie.

“We did not play well at all,” said Southwestern coach Ray Fabien. “The guys know that.”

The Lakers now are 3-7-2, in third place in the South Region. Olympic is 1-9-1.

Fabien has hopes the Lakers will improve over the final stretch as several players recover from injuries.

“We’re going to keep working hard and try to get as many wins as we can,” he said.

The men join the women in doubleheaders Friday and Saturday at Bellevue and Clark.

Volleyball loss

South Region-leading Mount Hood beat the Lakers 30-23, 30-15, 30-23 in Southwestern’s final home match on Saturday.

“Mount Hood is a very good team and we needed to play more error free in order to stay with them,” said Southwestern coach John Speasl.

Hannah Singleton had 10 kills and hit at a .474 percentage, while Christie Wisel had five kills, a solo block and a 2.5 passing average on a 3.0 scale in serve-receive. Jessica Bond had 31 assists and Ashley Canup led the defensive effort with 14 digs.

The Lakers face important road matches at Linn-Benton on Friday and Chemeketa on Saturday, needing at least a win over Chemeketa to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Cross country

The Southwestern cross country team ran against several elite programs, including the University of Oregon and Willamette University, at the Mike Hodges Invitational on Saturday.

Francesca Frasier led Southwestern’s women, breaking the 20-minute barrier for 5,000-meters for the first time with a 39-second personal best to finish 62nd in 19:27.

Tracy Melgoza was 79th in 20:12, followed by Jesse Ward in 89th (20:37). Leah Partman finished 106th (23:17) and Rachel Rameriz was 111th (25:22).

Southwestern finished eighth in the team race, trailing only Lane among community colleges, while beating Clark and Mount Hood.

Josh Frasier led Southwestern’s men with a time of 21:47 for four miles, finishing 82nd. Andrew Scott was just four seconds back in 21:51 for 87th place, while Peter Becker was 101st in 22:11. Other Lakers were Rob Manning, 118th in 22:47; Travis Clark, 134th in 23:58; Jon Peterson, 138th in 25:19; Casey Gleason, 141st in 27:23; and Chris Davis-Garland, 142nd in 28:07.

The Lakers should be at full strength for the Beaver Classic in Corvallis next week, with Kameron Ulmer expected to race after missing two weeks while recovering after being struck by a car while riding his bicycle to school.