That scene in desert-themed movies in which the exhausted character struggles to the top of a dune, only to peer over the crest and see the soul-crushing sight of more sand stretching off toward infinity?
That's about what it must feel like to hold Texas Tech's Janine Beckie without a goal for 90 minutes, only to watch the clock reset for the first of two overtime periods. Weary and beaten, you realize this probably isn't going to end well.
It didn't end well for her opponents this past week. It did end well for espnW's national player of the week, who helped keep the Red Raiders unbeaten and climbing toward the top of the national polls.
Playing on its home field Friday, California successfully kept Beckie from putting the ball in the back of the net for 90 minutes in a game between unbeaten ranked teams. With the score stuck on 0-0, Cal then kept Beckie at bay for 10 more minutes in the first overtime period. The Bears held the line for more than nine minutes in the second overtime.
But with barely 30 seconds to play, Beckie snuck behind a ball-watching defender on Alli Murphy's corner kick, propelled herself above the outstretched arm of the goalkeeper eight yards from goal and snapped a header under the bar.
Game over. Texas Tech's perfect season rolled on.
Beckie also helped push the Red Raiders' record to 7-0-0 with what proved to be the winning goal in a 2-0 win against Abilene Christian on Sunday, breaking a scoreless game with a goal just 24 seconds into the second half, but it was the goal against Cal that made the weekend.
Three consecutive winning seasons and back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances, the latter the first in program history, speak for themselves when it comes to Texas Tech's growth as a program. But most of that progress came at home in Lubbock, especially out of conference, and much of it against programs with limited national credentials. Winning and playing a composed counterattacking game on the road at Cal, which turned around two days later and beat Santa Clara for the second time this season, is a new step.
And Beckie, a double-digit goal scorer in each of her first two seasons and the leading scorer for Canada in this summer's Under-20 World Cup, wasn't just in the right place at the right time on a set piece against Cal. She was a presence throughout the game, making good runs, testing Cal on a couple of shots and holding up her end of the field. She played like the striker on a College Cup contender should.
Also considered this week:
Bianca Calderone, D, Northeastern
Megan Hinz, GK, Michigan
Kendall Romine, D, Stanford
Murielle Tiernan, F, Virginia Tech
Lynn Williams, F, Pepperdine