Catnip Award #1…Women’s Soccer Runs the Table

It is that time of year when the Saddleback sports information department produces the top-10 high points in Saddleback College athletics for the calendar year. Catnip Award No. 1 for 2022 goes to – Women’s Soccer Runs the Table.

December 31, 2022

It is that time of year when the Saddleback sports information department produces the top-10 high points in Saddleback College athletics for the calendar year. Catnip Award No. 1 for 2022 goes to – Women's Soccer Runs the Table.

It isn't often that a team accomplishes just about everything possible, but this seems to be the case with the women's soccer team in 2022. The Bobcats ended up winning every award imaginable following the season, making it the easy choice for the No. 1 Catnip Award recipient for 2022.

Saddleback ran the table in the playoffs in winning the program's first state championship with a 2-0 victory over Chaffey College on December 4. It completed a perfect storm to finish the year as the Bobcats defeated both Santiago Canyon College and Chaffey College along the way in the playoffs, the only two programs that had pinned a loss on the team during the course of the season.

Following the win at the state tournament, Saddleback then swept through the national awards, capturing the No. 1 national ranking (below left), the National Player-of-the-Year (below middle) and National Coaching Staff-of-the-Year (below right) by the United Soccer Coaches.

Saddleback finished the season 21-2-3, finishing the season with a program record for wins in a season (21) and a record-tying seven game winning streak to finish the year. The Bobcats recorded 16 shutouts on the season and scored a program record 87 goals for the year.

Saddleback had seven players make the All-Orange Empire Conference Team, with Lizbeth De Loera winning the Offensive MVP of the conference. The Bobcats had three players make the coaches all state team in De Loera, Zoe Chung and Averee Campos. Kylie Beu was named the National Player-of-the-Year by the United Soccer Coaches in addition to being named the Most Valuable Player of the CCCAA State Tournament.

Saddleback's state title in women's soccer ended a seven year drought for Saddleback athletics, which hadn't won state title since 2015 (MBB). It was just the fourth state title for a women's sport in the history of the school and the first since 2010 (tennis).

In addition to all the success on and off the field, Saddleback had two pleyrs from the team commit to Fresno State in the past week with three other players rumored to be close to making a decision in the coming weeks.