The UCSB women’s soccer team kept its quest for an undefeated conference schedule alive this weekend with a 3-3 tie against Utah State and a dominating 6-0 whipping of Idaho.
Friday’s deadlock came after the Gauchos became the unfortunate victims of a half-day-long travel delay, which pushed back their arrival time in Utah and caused the team to miss Thursday’s scheduled practice.
“What started as a six-hour travel day turned into a 15-hour nightmare,” UCSB Head Coach Paul Stumpf said.
The debacle may have affected the Gauchos’ play against the Aggies, considering the defense allowed three goals to the conference’s weakest team and, according to Stumpf, Santa Barbara did not play to its potential.
“We played a little flat on Friday,” Stumpf said. “We were not pleased with the effort and some of the thinking going on out there.”
The Gaucho offense was ignited by the usual suspects: sophomore midfielder Krystal Sandza and sophomore forward Jennifer Borcich. The two combined for all three scores. Sandza got the scoring started in the first half after she scored on a pass from sophomore midfielder Molly Martin. After Sandza knocked in her second goal, it was Borcich’s second-half score that looked to be the game winner. But with just over eight minutes remaining in the second half, the Gauchos allowed the tying goal and could not muster another score throughout the twenty-minute overtime period.
Stumpf said things did not look much different at the outset of Sunday’s game.
“Sunday was the same thing for the first 15 minutes, but then something happened and the team just perked up,” he said.
UCSB (10-3-2, 3-0-1 in the Big West) perked up by embarking on a six-goal offensive frenzy, highlighted by a three-goal outburst from Borcich and two scores from freshman midfielder Kristyn Bright.
Borcich’s first two goals came within three minutes of each other in the game’s 25th and 28th minutes.
“The first goal gave me confidence,” Borcich said. “I was really fired up and I just turned it on. One goal just wasn’t enough.”
Junior Alma Martinez and Bright scored the Gauchos’ next two goals, and then Borcich and Bright took turns knocking in the next two scores.
“We were not satisfied with Friday’s game so we had a different mentality on Sunday,” Borcich said. “We just wanted to crush them.”
Borcich credited senior captains Jennifer Codington and Katie Wilson for the team’s sudden turnaround against the Rebels.
“Jen and I just tried to stay positive and pump our team up,” Wilson said. “I think we all played really well and proved that we could play a lot better than we did on Friday.”
Sunday’s victory was freshman goalkeeper Jamie Considine’s tenth win and seventh shutout of the season.
The Gauchos will play their final two home matches of the regular season this Friday and Sunday against UC Irvine and Long Beach State. Both games start at 7 p.m. at Harder Stadium.
