The UC Riverside women’s soccer team (5-9-2, 0-5) traveled up to Cal State Fullerton Sunday Oct. 14 and looked to break a four game losing streak in the Big West Conference. Cal State Fullerton played aggressive on defense as they limited the offense of the Highlanders in route to a 0-1 victory.
In the first period, UCR had four shots and two were on target, but amounted to zero goals. Fullerton had 10 shots and six of them were on target, which led to the only goal in the first half at 16:31. Fullerton Jennifer Smith looped a ball to teammate Stacey Fox who chipped it over Goalkeeper Jessica White for her fifth goal of the season.
Riverside players Jessica Cortez and Andrea Morales were only ones on the team that had shots fired for the Highlanders offense. Goalkeeper Jessica White kept Riverside in the match with four saves of the five shots on goal. The second period the Riverside goalkeeper White was better when she only had to save three shots.
Fullerton’s offense was aggressive from the start and compiled 11 corner kicks. Fullerton had seven corner kicks 15 minutes into the game and the first few cam came at 2:24, 2:46 and at 4:08. However, Riverside’s defense picked it up in the second and allowed zero corner kicks. Riverside in the first period committed six fouls to Fullerton’s two and committed five more in the second period.
Riverside was able to get two corner kicks in the second period but were unable to score. In the five game losing streak the Highlanders have allowed a total of 14 goals compared to their three goals.
Highlander Crystal Lopez leads the team in points and goals with nine and four respectively. Celina Valencia is second in points and goals with eight points and three goals, however, leads the team in assists with two and shots with 27. Kaitlin Anzalone, Valencia, Jessica Cortez, Andrea Morales and Crystal Lopez all have game winning goals for Riverside.
Riverside looks to better their shot percentage (.107) and their shots on goal (.450), because their opponents on average have a .125 shooting percentage and a .481 shot on goal percentage. UC Riverside has switched up their goalkeepers this year with Nicole Ragano starting in place of Jessica White. Ragano has a .704 save percentage compared to White’s .744 when Riverside’s opponents save percentage is .763.
