After beating two of its toughest opponents, Cal State Los Angeles and Sonoma State, 4-0 and 4-1, respectively, over the past two weekends, it seemed that the Tritons were on a roll and the wins would only get better.
Junior midfielder Caitlyn Ryan swept foward to find her open teammate, but UCSD only managed to find the net once in a disappointing 1-1 draw against Humbolt State on Oct. 1.
But Oct. 1 brought in a humbling letdown in front of 919 fans in the Triton Soccer Stadium bleachers with a tied game to Humbolt State, which has only won half of its games this season, as opposed to UCSD, which is now ranked second in California Collegiate Athletic Association league play.
Triton junior forward Kathy Sepulveda explained how the Tritons let the game slip away.
“We were definitely the better team, but our confidence from Friday’s game came back to haunt us,” she said.
The Tritons made sure to take hold of the intimidation factor by being the first to raid the net. Sepulveda took a cross pass from senior midfielder Kelly Cochran to sweep past the Lumberjack keeper in the 56th minute of play for her fourth goal on the season.
“After the goal, relief set in and we thought we had it from there,” Sepulveda said. “But the game proved that one goal just wasn’t good enough. We relaxed a bit too much where we should have played hard.”
There were a couple more close shots following the first score, but the ball and the net never managed to meet again for the Tritons, and the 86th minute caught the Tritons off guard when Humbolt State’s Jessica Hewins netted a corner kick goal to bring the game to a 1-1 tie.
The shot was on a high, bending ball that flew over the Triton defender guarding the post and sank to the back right side of the goal, just past the hands of sophomore goalie Jessica McGovern.
McGovern recalled how her stomach dropped following the ball’s drop between her posts.
“For being unintentional, it was a perfect shot, one in a million,” she said.
Despite out-shooting the Lumberjacks by a 22-6 margin and holding a 7-2 advantage on corner kicks, the Tritons failed to take the lead late in the game, an unusual break from their last-minute scoring in recent games.
“We have kind of been in a mode where we expect things to come, so the tie was really humbling and made us realize that like the CSULA and Sonoma games, we have to make it happen if we want it,” McGovern said. “Each game to come this week is very critical and we are going to make every touch on the ball count.”
The Tritons have a chance to earn their first-place spot back in the CCAA, as they journeyed to Cal State Dominguez Hills on Oct. 4, and will stop at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino on Oct. 6 and 8, respectively. Results for the Oct. 4 game were unavailable at press time.
