By Ron Smith
November 3, 2021
 
(ALISO VIEJO, Calif.) The Golden State Athletic Conference has named five Westmont Women's Soccer players to the 2021 All-GSAC Women's Soccer Team. The five represent all four classes with two from the junior class.
 
"We are a well-rounded team with every class contributing," said Westmont head coach Jenny Jaggard. "It is cool to see that each of these classes have found a place within the team to use their talent and establish roles for themselves."
 
The five Warrior recipients are senior Teagan Matye of Roseville, juniors Taylie Scott of Maple Grove, Minn. and Grace Duckens from Rancho Santa Margarita, sophomore Daisy Alvarez of Long Beach and freshman Shayna Stock out of Redondo Beach.
 
Matye, a midfielder whose #24 uniform is nearly always on the field, has produced five goals and two assists this season.
 
"Teagan is one of the most well-rounded players that has been a part of this program," said Jaggard. "She covers so much ground, defends tremendously well and is very gifted offensively. To me, Teagan is one of the best players in any game she plays. She is extremely smart and is a team captain for us. No one ever outworks Teagan. She goes for 90 minutes, or in the case of this last weekend, 110 minutes. She never stops, never comes off the field.
 
"Teagan's soccer IQ is very high. She does things that cause a lot of trouble for our opponents. In one of our conference games, she matched up with one of the most dangerous players in the conference and caused her to disappear. Teagan will be hard for us to replace. She is a good person on and off the field. She is also invested in her church and works with her youth group."
 
Scott serves as a central defender for a squad that only allowed four goals in conference play. GSAC opponents managed just 14 shots on goal all season. Scott has logged the most minutes played this season at 1,337.
 
"Taylie is somehow a graceful, moving brick wall," described Jaggard of her play. "You just don't get past her. William Jessup's forwards are very talented, but we were able to basically shut them down in our final conference game and a lot of that came down to Taylie. She stayed tight to them, then timed it exactly perfectly, stepping in front and picking off the pass before they touched it. That takes a lot of boldness and perfect timing.
 
"Her defending this year is almost flawless. Taylie is a tremendously good one-on-one defender who is physically strong and understands angles of support.
 
"She has also developed her game offensively, playing the ball out of the back and connecting to our midfielders. Taylie also has the foot for dumping a deep ball when we need it. She is very versatile.
 
"Taylie is consistent, which is what you need for a center back. She is the player who doesn't step off the field. In the double overtime game at Southern Oregon, I thought she might have experienced a serious season-ending injury, but she came back the next day and played. She is extremely tough. She loves the sport and loves her teammates."
 
Duckens, a forward, led the team in points (13) by scoring five goals and adding three assists.
 
"Grace is so crafty on the ball and is very confident," described Jaggard. "She does things to defenders that is a little cheeky with flips and nutmegs, but she is good enough that she can do it. She is a very talented offensive player.
 
"She is a lefty, which is nice to have someone with a good left foot. We have been playing Grace on the right side of the diamond to encourage her to drive diagonally and put the ball on her left foot.
 
"Grace has a natural instinct to dribble and create chaos. Some people misunderstand dribblers and think of them as a ball hog. When Grace is dribbling, all the defenders are moving in on her. That means all her teammates are opening up. She creates a lot of opportunities to put people in good goal scoring opportunities where they are all by themselves because she takes that dribble. She also sets herself up in the box.
 
"We are seeing just the beginning of Grace's potential. We need to continue to build consistency and playing time for her. She is a very talented attacking player and she has learned the importance of the defending piece as well, which is not her natural tendency."
 
Alvarez, a defensive midfielder, has put the ball in the back of the opponent's net on four occasions – all of them off of free kicks.
 
"Daisy is our specialist free kicker," noted Jaggard. "When we recruited her out of club soccer, she was consistently scoring two goals a game and usually one of them was a free kick. We wondered if that would translate to this level. Would she be able to get the ball past a college goalkeeper? She has put that question to rest. The four she has scored this season were absolute bangers, perfectly placed.
 
"She also has some of the best timing as a defensive midfielder. She isn't tall, so we were concerned about whether she could battle off some of the teams. A lot of the time, the best offensive player on the other team is playing at the 10 (position), that matches up with our six. So, we have had a lot of matches where she is against the opponent's best player and they are usually bigger than her, sometimes by a lot. It is crazy to me that she finds a way to win every 50-50 ball in the air. With timing and angle, she gets in good body position before the bigger player so that they can't get to her without fouling her.
 
"Daisy is extremely smart. Defensively, she has been rock solid this year and she is a clever attacker. Offensively, she doesn't get on the ball a lot, but when she does, she has helped initiate the beginning of good attacks."
 
Shayna Stock is the Warrior's left defensive back who has assisted on five of the Warriors' goals.
 
"We knew when we recruited her that Shayna was good," offered Jaggard. "However, the role that she has filled this year has far exceeded what I thought she would be able to provide for us. She plays box-to-box – getting up and sending crosses in and then getting back into her box to defend.
 
"Shayna's timing is very good in the flank position where you have to read a lot of space to know when to step and apply pressure and when to stay tucked in with your back line. She is very smart at reading and knowing when to go and she has the athleticism to get there.
 
"Her long throw-in has been a tremendous tool for us this year. It helps us get the ball up and forward, and when we are deep in our opponent's end, it is almost like we are getting another corner kick.
 
"Shayna is a gifted one-on-one attacker and defender. She provides quality ball services into the box. One of my favorite qualities about her is that she is an outside back that likes to cut the ball and dribble central. That creates another layer to the game. She has excelled this year both offensively and defensively."
 
The Warriors, co-champions of the GSAC regular season, will host the semifinals and finals of the upcoming GSAC Tournament as the number one seed.
 
While Westmont (10-1-3, 6-0-2 GSAC), ranked 17th in today's NAIA National Coaches' Poll, and second-seeded Hope International (11-0-2, 6-0-2) have byes for Saturday's quarterfinals, four other teams will compete for the opportunity to advance to the semifinals. Sixth-seeded Menlo (9-3-3, 3-3-2) will play at third-seeded Ottawa (10-3-3, 4-1-3) in Arizona and fifth-seeded William Jessup (9-5-2, 3-3-2) will take on fourth seeded The Master's (9-3-3, 5-3) in Santa Clarita.
 
The semifinals will be held at Thorrington Field on Thursday, November 11 with Westmont hosting the lowest remaining seed at 1:30 p.m. The Warriors' game will be preceded by Hope International playing the other victor for Thursday's semifinals, beginning at 11:00 a.m.
 
The championship is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. kick-off on Saturday, November 13.