The ninth-ranked UCSD women’s soccer team exploded late in the game for a 6-0 win over Cal State Monterey Bay on Oct. 9, scoring five goals in the second half.
Despite the initial lethargy, UCSD (11-1-0 overall, 7-1-0 California Collegiate Athletic Association) was able to out-shoot the Otters by a 16-3 margin in the first half.
“Our defense never let CSUMB get near the goal,” McManus said. “It was an ugly game and we didn’t play very well the first half.”
With less than seven minutes left in the first half, junior Alise Malley netted her fourth goal of the season off a rebounded shot from freshman Natasha Belak-Berger.
Malley’s ball found the lower right corner of the net at the 38 minute, 18 second mark of the first half, paving the way for the Tritons to cruise past Cal State Monterey Bay in the second stanza.
The Tritons came out shooting in the second half with five goals in the first 25 minutes.
“By the second half we decided to put the game away,” junior Kelly Cochran said.
The Tritons pounded the Otters’ defense with shot after shot, firing off 17 in the second half alone.
Sophomore Ali Lai took four of her shots in the second half and scored three for the hat trick.
Her first goal of the game came at the 52-minute mark, as she took a deflected shot from junior Heather Sugg and slid it past the Cal State Monterey Bay keeper for her sixth tally of the year.
Lai’s second goal of the game came just over 10 minutes later when freshman Kelly Mayo slid a heel pass behind her to sophomore Kathy Sepulveda, who flicked it on to Lai, giving the Tritons a 3-0 lead.
In the 67th minute, Lai headed home her eighth goal of the year off a pass from junior Megan Dickey, increasing the lead to 4-0.
Belak-Berger added the team’s fifth goal six minutes later as she put home a header off sophomore Caitlin Ryan’s corner kick.
A mere 30 seconds later, junior Sereena Warino caught reserve Cal State Monterey Bay netminder Erika Ulfelder out of position and lobbed in her first career goal at UCSD from 16 yards out.
Freshman goalkeeper Mia Shirley played 72 minutes of the match and made two saves early on.
She gave way to freshman Jessica McGovern, who played the final 18 minutes and secured UCSD’s sixth-straight shutout and eighth of the year.
“With three attempted shots from the Otters, only two of them were slightly on target,” Cochran said.
UCSD returns to action next week with three matches on the road, beginning with a match at Cal State Bakersfield on Oct. 12.
