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Women's Soccer:
Women's Soccer Spring Schedule Announced
March 2, 2010
IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine women's soccer team has announced their 2010 spring schedule. The opening match of the spring season took place Saturday, February 27 at Crawford Field against CSU Bakersfield. Saturday, March 6th vs. Ajax @ 10:00am Crawford Field
Saturday. April 3rd vs. UCLA Saturday, April 3rd vs. Pepperdine Games are at Pepperdine.
Saturday, April 10th vs. CS San Marcos @ 9:00am Saturday, April 10th vs. UC Riverside @ 1:00pm Crawford Field
Saturday, April 17th @ Azusa Pacific 1:00pm
Saturday, April 24th vs. UC Irvine Alumni @ 12:00pm Crawford Field
Game vs. CSU Bakersfield On Saturday afternoon, the UC Irvine women's soccer team hosted CSU Bakersfield in a spring exhibition game at Crawford Field. With the rain subsiding, both teams looked to get a quick start as play early on was at a high tempo going back and forth. The `Eaters settled down and controlled possession in the midfield and looked to set a rhythm to the game. They quickly did as Senior captain Tanya Taylor gathered the ball on the left side of the Roadrunners 18 yard box and took a defender on looking to create a scoring opportunity. Taylor beat the defender and fired a shot near post that was just out of reach for the Bakersfield goalkeeper putting UC Irvine up 1-0. With 20 minutes remaining in the first half, coach Juniper made the substitutions of inserting freshman Jackie Samis and sophomore Carly Crowder into the game. Both players immediately made their presence known in the midfield as they helped UC Irvine both defensively and more so offensively. Samis scored her first goal of the spring season with a 20 yard blast that found the top right corner of the goal off a Dana Sanderlin pass from the right side. Shortly there after, UC Irvine found the back of the net for the 3rd time in the half as Tanya Taylor drove a pass through the Bakersfield 18 yard box to Crowder who one-timed it home for a comfortable halftime lead. The second half was just as competitive with Bakersfield looking to close the gap quickly and UC Irvine wanting to extend the lead. 10 minutes into the second half, Cal State Bakersfield got on the board with a counter attack goal. With numbers pushing up into the offensive areas of the field, the Roadrunners were able to find a forward with a through ball in behind the back line. With the pressure from a recovering UC Irvine defender closing down, the forward was able to hit a shot over the out stretched fingers of leaping UC Irvine goalkeeper Kala Gabler. With the score now 3-1, the home team looked to regain their form from the first half and keep the lead.
The next 35 minutes provided some scoring chances for both sides, but neither was able to add another tally on the day. Coach Juniper used a variety of players in multiple formations throughout the 90 minutes and was quite pleased with the results. "The spring season is for development of the players, trying new formations and putting them in various positions on the field. Anytime you can play a quality opponent and get to see how new things work in a competitive game that is a success regardless of the score." The UC Irvine Women's Soccer team stays on campus this Saturday, March 6th vs. Ajax America Women of the WPSL on Crawford Field at 10:00AM. |
