CSU East Bay women’s soccer team finished a disappointing season under .500 posting a 6-11-1 record overall placing fifth in the California Collegiate Athletic Association’s (CCAA) North division, though it wasn’t all bad for the Pioneer women as two standouts were selected as honorable mentions on the All-CCAA Team.

Senior defender and team captain Zuly Diaz and senior midfielder Kara Yamamoto were recognized for their seasons.

Diaz, a four-year player for the Pioneers was responsible for maintaining the defensive back lines for the Pioneer women’s squad.

She started all 18 games this year, and ensured that opposing teams would have a difficult time reaching the Pioneer goal.

“It feels awesome and great to get noticed,” Diaz said when discussing her honors.  “We’re [CSUEB] finally getting the recognition that we should.”  Diaz plans to finish graduate school for physical therapy.

Yamamoto led the Pioneers in scoring with 15 points on three goals and nine assists including two game-winning goals.  She also placed second overall in the conference for assists.

Yamamoto was surprised about the coaches voting her for honors.

“It was surprising,” the senior said. “I got a text from Amy [Gerace] congratulating me. It’s just weird.  I’m glad to finish my career on a high note.”

When discussing her three-year tenure as a Pioneer soccer player, Yamamoto had nothing but positive things to say about the program even though they struggled during her time there.

“We had so much talent.  The record doesn’t reflect what we were,” she explained. “We showed people we can come out and play. Also the team chemistry was by and far the best we ever seen.”

Yamamoto was thankful for the support she received over the years thanking the efforts of her friends, family and Gerace. After she graduates she plans on staying in the East Bay and pursuing graduate school for radiology.

Gerace was humbled that two of her players were noticed by other coaches for All-CCAA honors, “other coaches saw that they [Diaz and Yamamoto] were very technical and could play at a higher level and had an impact on the game.”

In respect to the season conference game scoring was problematic for the Pioneer women, as they ranked 10th out of 12 teams in the CCAA in goals scored with nine.  In contrast, the second-ranked team in the North division CSU Stanislaus scored 32 goals in conference play.

CSUEB also landed last in the conference on goals against with 26 in conference as well as a 1.81gaa (goals against average).

However, the Pioneers scoring woes could have overcome that trend if not for losing seven games by one goal.  There were only two games that were considered “bad games” and those were loses against Sonoma State and Cal Poly Pomona.  With goalkeeper Jamie Botteon learning in her freshman season she has time to recover and get adjusted to keep the Pioneers in close games.

The CSUEB women’s soccer team will have a lot of new faces along with Botteon for the 2013 season as they will be losing a total of six players.

Gerace’s squad will be without their two All-CCAA athletes for the 2013 season along with senior goalkeeper Nina Cefalo, who logged the second-most minutes in net.

Senior forward Shianna Falk will be leaving the squad for the 2013 season.  She led the Pioneers with five goals; good for ninth-best in the conference, and also tallied three assists.  Senior forward Eugenie Foote, who was second on the team in goals with four and one assist, will also have exhausted her collegiate eligibility.

Looking back on the season Gerace said she had higher expectations but there were positives to come from it

“It wasn’t disappointing, but I felt like the team was very competitive, but didn’t finish opportunities,” the coach explained. “What we did improve on was doing a good job defending the goal.”

With a lack of scoring and a bad year in the net, those two factors are the clear areas where the team needs to improve.

With some careful recruiting with a mixture of some prospective transfers and recruits from all over the state, Gerace hopes to build on the successes from this season and eliminate the negatives that plagued the team.