MASTERFUL

By Brandon Petersen

The Westcliff women's soccer team opened the 2025 season with a nice little upset, taking down No. 25 The Master's 1–0 Wednesday night at OC Great Park.

The difference came less than two minutes after halftime.

Senior Isabella Covarrubias scored in the 47th minute, finishing a setup from Jordyn Gather and Samantha Aguila.

The goal held up as the winner as the Warriors (1–0) secured their first victory of the year against a ranked opponent.

Goalkeeper Kayli Cokley made five saves to earn the sheet, while Westcliff's defense weathered a late push from The Master's, which outshot the Warriors 14–7 overall.

Head coach Jack Gidney said the result was more about resilience than polish.

"Not where we need to be. Not fit enough yet. Not enough games in the legs. We're not anywhere near mid-season form. You can see it," Gidney said. "But what I thought you saw was them be adaptable. Them take the coaching. I thought you saw the depth of the squad and how many bodies were coming on and coming on."

With triple subs and short shifts, Gidney said his team relied on waves of fresh legs to manage the game.

"Because of the lack of fitness, we were having to use just give us 10 or 15 then another two or three give us 10 or 15 and another, and so what you see is the quality in smaller moments," he said. "The hope is here, like this week is a three-game week for us and they're all different games… so what we hope is that throughout the week we can get more minutes in the legs that they're crying for. The problem is we just had to clip the teeth and get through it."

The Master's was ranked 25th in the NAIA preseason poll, while Westcliff sat just outside the Top 25.

"We felt they're in our seat, so hopefully we can continue to play some musical chairs this year," Gidney said.

Westcliff returns to action Friday in an exhibition before facing Justice College at OCC on Sunday.