The No. 3 UCSD women’s soccer team finished off its 2006 regular season, pushing its winning streak to 11 games on victories over San Francisco State on Oct. 20 and Cal State Monterey Bay on Oct. 22.
Junior midfielder Caitlyn Ryan helped secure the 1-0 win over San Francisco State on Oct. 20 by assisting the game-winning goal with a corner kick cross in the second half. The No. 3 Tritons pushed their overall record to 16-1-2 on the season.
The final scores of 1-0 and 2-1, respectively, seemed very narrow for the California Collegiate Athletic Association South Division champions, who had won their previous four matches by a margin of two goals or more.
Nonetheless, the Tritons’ impressive overall record of 16-1-2 has exploded way beyond those of San Francisco State (4-11-4 overall) and Cal State Monterey Bay (3-16-2 overall), giving UCSD plenty of confidence entering the playoffs.
Despite clinching a playoff berth several games back, the Tritons’ wins earned them much-needed points for nationals that would help to achieve a high seed.
Senior midfielder Kelly Cochran explained the complex ranking system.
“It’s actually pretty scary,” Cochran said. “All the points are compiled and calculated by a computer. It’s all a math equation, not people’s opinions of who is the better team.”
It was also essential for the Tritons to win these past two games to stay on top of the NCAA Far West region, in which they narrowly finished first ahead of Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University.
Senior midfielder Megan Dickey took the gravity of these games into consideration and was a huge part of the Tritons’ success on the road, contributing the winning goal against San Francisco State and assisting on both goals against Cal State Monterey Bay.
Dickey’s sixth goal of the season — three of which were game-winning strikes — came in the 67th minute against the Gators on a pass from junior midfielder Caitlyn Ryan. Ryan took the corner kick and crossed it in, allowing Dickey to jump and get her head on it, sending the ball to the back of the net.
“I want to go out of this season and my career knowing that I always did my personal best,” Dickey said. “And if all goes well, and we go all the way, I will still have seven games to do that in.”
While one goal was all it took for the win, Dickey secured five of the total shots on goal in the game, while junior midfielder Chelsea Campbell attempted four, with senior forward Alise Malley, junior midfielder Ali Lai and Ryan taking three shots apiece.
Though the Tritons were having difficulties putting their shots through, they limited the Gators to only four shots on goal and outshot them by a 28-7 margin with a 9-2 advantage in corner kicks.
“They gave us more time with ball possession and didn’t attack as strongly, so we ended up taking too many touches and passes instead of making the right one and just going for it,” junior forward Kathy Sepulveda said. “It hurt our urgency to score but we still did what we came to do.”
Perhaps another reason for the disrupted play was the injury of one of the Tritons’ key players, senior midfielder Heather Sugg, who left the game in the 87th minute with a broken foot and will now be unable to finish the season.
“Sugg is one of our strongest players, centerfield especially, and when we lost her, our team really had to rise up to the occasion and compensate for her loss,” sophomore forward Natasha Belak-Berger said.
The Tritons refreshed their old habit of second-half comebacks in the Cal State Monterey Bay game, saving both goals for after halftime, made by lead scorers Cochran and Sepulveda, who each earned their ninth goals on the season within three minutes of one another.
Sepulveda took the first initiative, putting through a pass from Dickey on a long ball over the back of the defense. Sepulveda challenged the net and beat the Otter goalkeeper one-on-one for the goal.
Cochran followed her lead and made an unexpected shot after one of the Cal State Monterey Bay opponents nudged senior forward Alise Malley out of the way, causing the ball to shoot forward and rebound off of Cochran’s cleat near the penalty line, which she redirected into the net for a 2-0 lead.
“All of the seniors are a little more emotionally involved because it is our last season, but the whole team was really relieved to score again,” Cochran said.
The shutout was interrupted in the 85th minute when the Otters beat sophomore alternate goalie Mia Shirley to trail by one for the remainder of the game.
The No. 3 team now focuses all of its energy toward its first semifinal match of the 2006 CCAA women’s soccer championships against Humbolt State, which will be hosted at home at 7 p.m. on Oct. 27 at Triton Soccer Stadium.
This will be the first time the Lumberjacks made it to the championships and the sixth consecutive time for the Tritons, who have a 4-0-1 all-time record against Humbolt State.
This will be the second time these two top-notch teams face each other this season, with the first matchup resulting in a 1-1 draw on Oct. 1.
“All of us are really stoked to play and focused on going all the way this time,” Belak-Berger said. “Our coach keeps telling us that we have the talent if we just come prepared and it is always better to have the home advantage. All that cheering and support from fans and the added feeling of personal pride from playing on our home field can really make the difference.”
