2018 OEC Women's Soccer Preview: Can Someone Knock Off the Hawks?

The women's soccer season is just on the horizon and with the opening games ready to kick off in late August the fans of the Orange Empire Conference are wondering when a program will finally unseat the defending champs. Santiago Canyon College is looking for a 15^th straight Orange Empire Conference title in 2018, which has the sports information directors thinking more of the same could be on the horizon. 

Santiago Canyon is the heavy favorites according the Orange Empire Conference Sports Information Poll, taking home all seven first place votes.  The Hawks finished 20-2-2 in 2017, losing to eventual state champion Fresno City College in a painful shootout in the state semifinals.  Santiago Canyon was 14-1-1 in OEC play last season, starting the season 0-1-1 after a tie with Irvine Valley College and a loss to Orange Coast College.  The Hawks proceeded to rip off 14 straight wins after the slow start, clobbering OEC foes 53-5 in the process. 

Santiago Canyon gets a great jumpstart on repeating with the return of First Team Orange Empire Conference selection Ofelia Sosa, who led the Hawks with 16 goals a season ago.  The Hawks will also be set in the middle of the field with the return of Angelica Ortega and Ashley Roskelly, both of whom were big contributors in 2017. 

Top three challengers

Cypress College finished second in the SID voting and always has to be considered a contender to end the SCC streak.  The Chargers won three state titles over a seven-year period from 1998-2004 but haven't been able to figure out the Santiago Canyon riddle ever since.  Cypress started the 2017 campaign 0-3, but went 12-3-3 over the final 18 games, recording six shutouts along the way.  The Chargers return a couple of their top players on the back end with the return of Tabatha Macedo (D,GK) and Brianna Camacho (M). 

Orange Coast has finished in the top half of the standings for the past three years and was a third place finisher last year.  The Pirates were the only team to defeat Santiago Canyon in Orange Empire Conference play and finished strong, making it to the second round of the CCCAA Southern California Playoffs before falling to Santa Barbara City College (0-3).  OCC returns two of their top scorers on offense in Tiffany Chandler and Haley Auer, while Jane McDonald returns after starting all 23 games on defense in 2017. 

Another picked to contend is Saddleback, who finished just an eyelash behind Orange Coast in the voting.  The Gauchos finished fifth a season ago after knocking on the door in both 2015 and 2016. Saddleback was very good in the defensive end in 2017 but never got things figured out offensively.  The Gauchos recorded 11 shutouts during the course of the season, but were shutout themselves by opponents eight times.  The good news is that the nucleus of that defense is back with Collette Halloran and Michaela Wagner, and the top goal-scorer returns in Natally Gomez.   

OEC SPORTS INFORMATION POLL RESULTS:

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