The Aggies traveled to Colorado this weekend for a pair of games against Denver and Regis.
One game was a little more favorable than the other.
UC Davis fell to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival Denver 17-7 to open up the road trip. The Aggies followed up the loss by crushing Division II Regis 18-3.
“The two games were pretty different in both the result and how we played,” coach Elaine Jones said.
Senior Molly Peterson and junior Gina Hoffmire led all UC Davis scorers with six goals over the two matches.
The Aggies move to 8-3 on the season and 2-1 in MPSF play with the weekend split.
Friday – Denver 17, UC Davis 7
It had been 49 days since UC Davis last played a conference foe.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, they matched up against the first place Denver Pioneers.
“Denver is a very good team,” Jones said. “I’d consider them a top-25 team nationally.”
The Pioneers jumped out to a 2-0 lead within the first four minutes of play. Hoffmire and Peterson each tallied a goal to even the score at the eight-minute marker.
Denver then scored five unanswered goals to gain a commanding lead but the Aggies weren’t about to give up. A pair of goals trimmed the Pioneer lead to four entering the break.
“I thought we could make a comeback in the second half,” Jones said. “But Denver came out hot and secured a win.”
The Pioneers scored six unanswered to start the second half to extinguish any thoughts of an Aggie comeback. The two teams traded goals to end the game as Denver held on for the victory.
With the loss the Aggies fall to second place in MPSF standings and the Pioneers take sole possession of first place.
“It was not a pretty game,” Jones said. “It was going to take all 12 of us to beat them and that didn’t happen. Our defense broke down and our offense didn’t quite click.”
Despite being proud of the team’s transition play from defense to offense, Jones was disappointed with the Aggies’ inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities.
“We turned the ball over a lot,” she said. “Denver would capitalize off our mistakes and we couldn’t do the same on their mistakes.”
Saturday – UC Davis 18, Regis 3
Jones called the Aggies’ big win over the Rangers a confidence builder.
“This was a good win for us,” Jones said. “Everyone contributed and we gave a good effort.”
The Aggies scored nine straight goals to close out the first half and secure the victory. UC Davis outshot Regis 36-9, the first time the Aggies held an opponent to under 10 shots this season.
Hoffmire led eight Aggie scorers with five goals on the game. Senior Molly Lapolla added three scores for a hat trick of her own.
The Aggies return to action on Thursday when they travel to play conference foe St. Mary’s. UC Davis then returns to Aggie Stadium to match up against Oregon in an MPSF battle.
JASON ALPERT can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
