Bakersfield College’s women’s soccer team has seen improvement over the last week and a half, despite being shut out by College of the Canyons 6-0 on Oct. 13.

The Renegades’ (4-5-2 overall, 2-2-1 Western State Conference – South) defense, which has been notorious for giving up multiple goals quickly within the first few minutes of the match, finally limited them prior to the meeting against COC (5-1-4, 3-0-2 WSC-South).

Before taking on conference-leading COC, BC won twice and tied once, and for the first time since the match against West Hills Lemoore on Sept. 22, they did not allow a goal within the first 17 minutes until the Cougars on Oct. 13 chipped in two of its six goals in the first 11 minutes. Head Coach Scott Dameron has made it his point of emphasis to avoid that after the team’s previous loss at L.A. Valley College on Sept. 29.

Offensively, BC finally found rhythm in the Oct. 6 meeting at home against West L.A. (2-5-4, 1-2-2 WSC-South).

Sophomore Victoria Pyle scored the first goal of her season in the 40th minute. Pyle, who was BC’s leading goal scorer last season, has been more of the facilitator, racking up the assists with help from fellow sophomore Sabrina Spink. Dameron said, “We moved Pyle into a wide position so she could run at defenders” in regards to her role.

Dameron’s strategic plan to have her more effective showed after the blow of the whistle to start the second half as Pyle quickly spread outside moving the ball downfield to set up Spink with her 10th goal of the season and Pyle’s fifth assist of the season two minutes into the second half.

With Spink’s goal, it put the contest out of reach as West L.A. was not able to capitalize, allowing BC to seal the 2-0 victory.

BC earned its first back-to-back wins the following game against Antelope Valley College (2-6-3, 0-3-2 WSC-South) on Oct. 9, as they squeezed out a 1-0 victory.

Dameron changed his starting lineup as he put top goal-scorer Spink at goalkeeper, a position she is familiar with but has not played since her senior year at Liberty High School in 2011.

Even though the Renegades allowed five shots on goal, Spink managed to block all five shots.

Danielle Vargas, who replaced Spink as the team’s striker, scored in the 50th minute of the match proving depth up front.

Although the BC defense only gave up three goals in the three games prior to facing Canyons, they fell apart allowing a season-high six goals to COC on 18 shots on goal. Dameron kept Spink in as goalie for the second consecutive game but Spink was not as effective as she was against Antelope Valley, giving up 3 goals in 52 minutes of play.

The Renegades went into the half down by two hoping to bounce back strong in the second half, but conference-leading COC quickly showed it was going to be difficult for the Renegades to overcome its deficit as they scored its third goal in the first 34 seconds of the match.

After being down 3-0, Dameron decided to pull Spink out of the goalie box and put her back at her natural forward position.  Dameron was hoping putting Spink back out on the field it would add a spark and she would be able to make some plays for the Renegades, something she has done all year. Spink came out to play and provided two of the three shots on goal the Renegades had all game.  It was not enough as COC was able to hand the Renegades their third shutout loss.

The Renegades are hoping to stay competitive in the conference as they take on Citrus College (4-4-3, 2-1-2 WSC-South) at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 16 in a crucial battle as Citrus is one spot ahead of BC in the standings.