Despite creating many chances to score, the Aggies struggle to hit the mark
By COLINA HARVEY— sports@theaggie.org
UC Davis men’s soccer entered the 2025 season as reigning conference champions. Last season, they defeated UC Santa Barbara in the Big West final to claim the trophy and qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament — the team is hoping to replicate its past success this season.
However, the Aggies have played seven games this season thus far, and are still chasing their first win.
Their season opened on Aug. 21 against the University of San Francisco (USF) Dons. USF outshot the Aggies, leading to the lone goal being scored by the Dons early in the second half.
In their next game, Davis nearly secured a win against Santa Clara University (SCU). A perfectly placed shot in the first half by Cason Goodman, a fourth-year communication major, put the Aggies ahead for the majority of the game. However, an 89th-minute goal by Santa Clara turned what would’ve been an Aggie win into a draw.
On Aug. 24, their game against the University of Washington Huskies yielded a similar result. The Aggies took the lead early in the second half with a goal from second-year Zachary Neuls. The Huskies responded with a goal in the 76th minute, once again leaving the Aggies winless.
In the Aggies’ Aug. 31 game against Stanford University, they were well-matched with their highly-ranked opponent. The game remained scoreless until the 76th minute, when Stanford found an opening and scored, beating the Aggies 1-0.
Neuls explained that, while their results so far this season are not as positive as they may have hoped, the outcomes do not always match their quality of play.
“We’re doing the right things, but we’re just not getting the end result […] We’re just missing that final step,” Neuls said.
The team’s home opener against Saint Mary’s College on Sept. 3 was another example of the mismatch between results and level of play. UC Davis outshot Saint Mary’s 24-7 and had 14 shots on goal, compared to only three by their opponent. However, they only netted one goal, which was scored by fourth-year international relations major Zack Lillington in the 66th minute.
Despite the fact that the Aggies had many more chances to score against Saint Mary’s, the game ended in another draw.
“Our defense is the same, if not stronger [than] last year,” Neuls said. “But the thing that we need to work on is probably scoring goals, cause I feel like that’s what’s holding us back from winning games and replicating our success from last year.”
Their recent 4-0 loss against Seattle University (SU) at home told the same story. Seattle scored in the fourth minute, putting the Aggies behind early. Although Davis went on to outshoot the SU Redhawks significantly, they could not convert any of their shots and ended the game scoreless.
On Sept. 18, the Aggies played the University of the Pacific at home. They took the lead early on with a goal from fourth-year Chase Tanon in the seventh minute. Despite the strong start, Pacific was able to equalize by the 22nd minute and scored the game-winner in the 59th minute.
The team is looking to improve their game luck, starting with weaknesses from the past season.
“I think last season, we had some early success, but […] towards the beginning of [the] conference, we struggled a lot like midseason. I think this year we want to be more consistent, but that also starts with winning,” Neuls said.
The Aggies are aiming to repeat last year’s achievements and become Big West champions once again, hopefully going as far into the NCAA tournament as possible. Although they’re not seeing the early success that they saw last year, there’s still time to turn the season around.
“Our big goal is to obviously qualify for the NCAA tournament. That either means ranking high, which might be tough now that we haven’t gotten the results that we want, or winning the Big West — which is definitely our goal to win the Big West again,” Neuls said. “If we can replicate the success from last year, we want to go even above and beyond, like getting further into the NCAA, and you know, trying to win a national title is ultimately […] the final goal.”
On Oct. 1, the team will travel to San Luis Obispo to take on California Polytechnic State University in their first Big West matchup.
Written by: (Colina Harvey) — sports@theaggie.org
