UC Davis women’s soccer team loses tough 1-0 match
With an overcast sky and windy weather, the UC Davis women’s soccer team was looking to extend its unbeaten conference record for the 2017 season against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in conference play on Oct. 19. The Aggies came into the game with an overall 4-9-1 record, a 3-0-1 conference record and were tied for second place in the Big West Conference. UC Davis was looking to be unaffected by the dreary weather, wanting to walk away with another conference win.
The first half started off with back-and-forth possession by both teams, neither team managing to get a shot in the first seven minutes of play. However, in the eighth minute the Gauchos found the back of the net on a header from a cross into the box, giving them the 1-0 lead. With three minutes left in the first, UC Santa Barbara nearly added another goal to its lead, but a shot off of the crossbar kept its lead to one, as the second half ended with the Aggies trailing. In the first half, UC Davis took two total shots, with the Gauchos taking four. The Aggies knew that they would have to put something together to try and get the comeback victory in the second half.
UC Davis outshot its opponents in the second half six to five, and almost the entire half was Aggie offense on the Gauchos half, but the Aggies could not put one in the back of the net, and the game finished with UC Davis taking the 1-0 hard fought loss. Junior goalkeeper Alexis Smith had two saves on the day with the team having produced eight shots and 10 corner kick opportunities.
“Our second half performance was really good,” said head coach Twila Kaufman. “We were getting numbers forward and closing that gap. I don’t know if the stats were even indicative of how much we were in their half in the second half and I am really pleased. We have come back from that deficit before so I was just telling the team throughout the end that it was gonna come and I thought that was gonna happen.”
Kaufman was proud of her team and how hard they worked with the absence of a few players due to injury, and has full confidence the Aggies will produce another win in the future.
“I really think this just comes down to crossing t’s and dotting i’s,” Kaufman said. “I don’t think there was necessarily a moment that lost that game for us, it comes down to a lot of tiny moments and I think we dropped to many of those little moments in the first half. I can say I am confident that if soccer was a three-quarter game we would have won because we would have had them.”
The Aggies now have a 4-10-2 overall record and a 3-1-2 conference record. They currently hold third place in the Big West conference. Their final home game of the season was played this past Sunday adding a tie to their conference record after going into double overtime where a last-chance shot by sophomore midfielder Emma Hasco was blocked in the final minute of overtime play and secured the 0-0 tie. UC Davis only has two remaining conference matches, both away, to climb to the top of the Big West.
Written by: Ryan Bugsch — sports@theaggie.org
