UC San Diego women’s soccer (4-5-6, 2-2-2 Big West) picked up a crucial 1-0 Big West victory against UC Riverside (0-12-2, 0-5-1 Big West) on Thursday, Oct. 16, at Triton Soccer Stadium. The Tritons’ only goal came in the eighth minute — a header from redshirt freshman forward Ava Tibor.
The victory marked UCSD’s fourth consecutive match without a loss after breaking its six-game winless streak last week. UCR is winless so far this season.
“We’ve been playing really well, but maybe not necessarily getting results, or getting ties,” senior defender Allie Luo said in a postgame interview with The UCSD Guardian. “We really needed this win.”
UCSD started the match on the back foot, struggling to get through UCR’s back line. Meanwhile, the Highlanders had two attempts on goal in the first three minutes of play, converting a corner kick into a scoring opportunity from inside the 18-yard box. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Charlotte Wilfert easily saved both. Throughout the match, she made a season-high eight saves en route to her seventh clean sheet of the season.
Less than 10 minutes into the game, Tibor turned the tide in the Tritons’ favor. Freshman defender Anya Lin sent a cross from the right corner to Tibor, who headed it to the bottom left from inside the penalty box to put the Tritons up 1-0. Tibor’s eighth-minute goal was her first in nine games after an early-season hot streak of four goals in three matches.
“We knew we’d get a lot of crossing opportunities tonight, and we worked a lot on [Tibor’s] runs, and our other 9’s runs, Andrea’s runs, and they both bought into it,” head coach Kristin Jones said in a postgame interview with The Guardian. “So, I’m just glad that [after] her discipline and patience in the box, there was the reward of the goal.”
Ahead by a goal, UCSD dropped back for the rest of the period. The Highlanders went on to rack up eight shot attempts to the Tritons’ four in the first half. UCR’s best shot of the night happened in the 38th minute when Highlander sophomore forward Audrey Stewart unsuccessfully headed the ball to the left of the goal from inside the penalty box.
“We fell off a little bit mentally in the first half, and they just got a lot of shots,” Luo said. “We kind of had them in front of us, but we still shouldn’t have given up that many shots.”
Coming out of the break, the Tritons kept the play in the Highlanders’ half, making it as difficult as possible for them to get an equalizer. In the last five minutes of the match, UCR capitalized on a corner kick to get dangerously close to the goal. Highlander sophomore midfielder Ally Yoshimura’s shot from right bounced inside the 6-yard line and landed squarely at Luo’s feet. Luo played it out of the penalty box to make the save.
“Jenna [Grider] got to the ball, but then she chested it and it went backwards,” Luo said. “No one saw it coming. And then it went undershot, I didn’t see it either, and it was stuck between my legs. I was like, ’Shoot, I just got to get this out before anyone else gets there.’”
Luo’s save summed up the Tritons’ scrappy efforts to keep UCR at bay. Entering the match in ninth place, UCSD was desperate to pick up some points and climb closer to the top-six group that will qualify for the Big West Championship in two weeks. UCSD currently sits at seventh in the conference — two points out of a postseason spot.
“Every game now really matters for us, and trying to find ways to get the three points and not tie or lose is basically the name of the game at this point,” Jones said. “Riverside presented a lot of different looks and problems for us, so hats off to them, but we showed up. We did what was needed to win the game.”
The Tritons will take on Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, Oct. 19, in their penultimate home game of the season.
