Seniors Rochelle VanBuskirk and Britnee Warmerdam talked about their team’s tough 4-1 loss to UC Santa Barbara on Senior Day.
“We were a little soft, and it’s our fault,” VanBuskirk said. “We could have gone in harder on our tackles to prevent the goals.”
“We are a lot more capable than the way we played today,” Warmerdam said. “These teams are beatable. There was a lot of individual effort, but we could have played more like a team. We needed to defend as a team and attack as a team.”
The Gauchos’ win was aided by three goals from three different players within the first 10 minutes of play.
“I thought we came out soft,” said coach MaryClaire Robinson. “We had plenty of numbers behind the ball, but we’ve got to do more. We got ourselves into a big fat hole which made it tough to dig out.”
UCSB struck first in the fourth minute of the game on a header by Cory Yoshida. The Gauchos scored twice more from 10 yards out, giving themselves an early 3-0 lead.
This score remained into the second half, but the deficit didn’t cause the Aggies to let up.
In the 54th minute, VanBuskirk dribbled the ball into the box and was fouled by the UCSB keeper, resulting in a penalty kick.
VanBuskirk successfully converted the penalty kick, pulling the Aggies to within 3-1 of the Gauchos.
With the score, VanBuskirk is now one goal shy of tying the UC Davis record for single-season goals.
“I thought (VanBuskirk) did a great job today,” Robinson said. “She’s a hard worker, and she finds a way to be dangerous. The penalty kick she scored was off of her effort. She was a bright spot for us.”
The Gauchos regained a three-point edge less than two minutes later when Katy Roby scored her second goal from the right side of the box accounting for the final score.
Despite the loss, the Aggies look to improve and focus on objectives for the remaining two matches of the season.
“I would like to see us going hard on every tackle,” VanBuskirk said, “taking shots, attacking on defense, working hard for each other and playing with heart.”
The Aggies have a chance to achieve these goals this weekend as they travel to play Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside.
GRACE SPRAGUE can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
