The UCSB women’s soccer team followed a great win Friday evening with a tough loss Sunday night at Northridge.

After igniting Big West play last Friday with a 2-1 victory at Pacific, Santa Barbara (5-6-1 overall, 1-1 Big West) headed down south on Sunday to face the Matadors in an attempt to come away with an opening-weekend sweep of two Big West Conference powers.

The Matadors (8-2-1 overall, 2-1 Big West) had their own plans to come out victorious, and unfortunately for the Gauchos, CSUN blitzed Santa Barbara 2-0.

Both teams battled their way to a scoreless tie at the half, but Northridge came out of the midway break with the killer instinct in mind.

Matador Cindy Mallet broke the tie in the 52nd minute when she teamed up with the duo of Jenny Graham and Melissa Cleal to put the finishing touches on the first goal. The last Matador strike came off the foot of Lisa Gouveia, who notched the second goal at the 72:32 mark of the game.

The Matador defense clamped down on the Gauchos’ leading scorer, freshman forward Jen Borcich. Borcich did not attempt any shots during a game in which Santa Barbara was only out-shot by one, 12-11.

The Gauchos were taken aback Sunday by a taste of their own medicine from Friday’s game, when they capitalized on nine shots with two goals. Pacific could only come up with a solo goal off 21 shots.

UCSB returns to Harder Stadium on Friday night at 8:00 p.m., where the squad will duke it out against Utah State in the second game of a double-header with the men’s team. On Sunday, Santa Barbara will battle Idaho at home in a 1:00 match-up.

-Clancy Roberts

Print