The afternoon of Sept. 17 at Chico State was a sad reminder that all good things must come to an end as the UCSD women’s soccer team’s four-game winning streak was cut short by a 0-1 loss to the Wildcats.
Freshman midfielder Laura Davey fights to keep possession from Cal State Stanislaus on Sept. 15, where UCSD blew out the Warriors in a laughable 5-0 contest that featured a second-half flurry in which five different Tritons notched goals.
“We created more opportunities for shots throughout the game, but they had a really good cross that rebounded off of one of our players and went in,” senior midfielder Heather Sugg said.
Following the first and only goal of the game, which came early in the 34th minute of the first quarter, the Tritons kept their pride alive.
“We stayed pretty composed afterwards, mainly because we know we are typically a second-half team, but the luck just wasn’t on our side,” Sugg said.
The Tritons scored five second-half goals against Cal State Stanislaus during which junior midfielder Chelsea Campbell edged out her competition with a strong body block.
The Tritons maintained the upper hand on shooting by a 12-7 margin, but couldn’t pull through for goals.
“Their keeper had some great saves, and yeah, we had our first loss, but we are going to keep on striving to be the team that other teams want to beat,” Sugg said.
Despite the end to their winning streak, the work done in previous weeks is not forgotten.
A glimpse from Sept. 15, when the lady Tritons shut out Cal State Stanislaus 5-0 for their fourth win on the season, demonstrates their preceeding glory.
Junior forward Kathy Sepulveda steals the ball from her Cal State Stanislaus opponent, clearing it upfield, to be picked up by a fellow Triton, junior midfielder Chelsea Campbell. Campbell shoots, misses and the ball is saved by the Warrior goalkeeper, but not for long, as senior forward Alise Malley pounds in a follow-up shot to net the first goal of the game just 28 seconds into the second half.
Despite a very uneventful first half, with no scoring by either team, UCSD came back pumped after halftime to redeem itself of the 10 shots the team missed in the first to come away with the win.
“We just needed to settle down,” sophomore forward Natasha Belak-Berger said. “We were panicking in our minds instead of following our feet, and it was affecting our passes.”
“Once we came back from halftime and got our first shot on goal, it really boosted our confidence,” Belak-Berger said. “We proved to them who was the better team from that point forward.”
Malley’s goal did indeed give the Tritons a surge of momentum in scoring as Sepulveda scored an unassisted goal just one minute after to give UCSD a 2-0 lead.
Freshman midfielder Alexia Zatarain was thrilled with her first collegiate goal in the 54th minute of the game on the first of three corner kicks in the match.
“I was screaming and jumping up and down and ran over to all the girls for high fives,” Zatarain said. “It really motivated me to play even better and work harder to be a big part of the team.”
Belak-Berger earned her first goal of the season on a corner kick in the 79th minute of the game on a pass by Campbell, bringing UCSD to 4-0.
Less than 10 minutes later, Campbell decided she wanted to finish one off by herself and netted a corner kick goal of her own, for the final point in the game.
In addition to the the very successful offensive play, the Triton goalkeepers also played a significant role in ensuring victory. Sophomore Jessica McGovern played nearly a full game with two saves facing eight shots from the Warriors, while sophomore Mia Shirley finished out the final 14 minutes to preserve the shutout.
The No. 12-ranked UCSD women’s soccer team heads out for a road trip again next weekend, where it will face league foes Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Bakersfield in hopes of rebounding from Sunday’s loss.
