Women’s soccer fell 0-1 in the semifinal of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament Friday night in San Diego versus No. 14 UC San Diego.
Earlier in the week, the Broncos outlasted the Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles on Tuesday at home 3-1.
On Tuesday, the Broncos’ offense was on fire as the team scored all three of its goals in the first half. The Broncos had a total of 13 shots, eight of which were on target.
“I felt like our group, we were OK at the beginning but I felt like we scored the goal and the intensity was not quite right,” head coach Jay Mason said. “I thought we scored in kind of an opportunistic way, so I felt like we were not quite prepared for the fight. I think we thought that it would have been a little bit easier, but credit to the kids — they found ways to score goals.”
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During the first five minutes of the match, the Broncos almost got on the board after back-to-back shots, first by sophomore midfielder Jasmin Duran, followed by junior midfielder Jessica Llamas.
The Broncos’ insistence would pay off during minute 16, when they were awarded a penalty kick after a hand ball from a Golden Eagle player, that junior forward Taylor Scott blasted to the back of the net.
“The goals mean a lot to me; these are playoff games if you lose you’re out, so getting these goals really helped us,” Scott said. “I think the first half we started off a little slow and our intensity was not where it should be, but (in the) second half we picked it up and played our game.”
Minutes later, the Golden Eagles pushed forward and almost got on the board with three consecutive shots, but the Broncos’ defense kept them at bay. Despite the Golden Eagles’ having possession of the ball, Scott was able to capitalize on a mistake from the Eagles’ goalkeeper to go up 2-0.
“I thought it was a good game, it was a little slow in the beginning and we picked it up in the second half,” junior midfielder Allison Hung said.
As the first half was coming to an end, the Broncos scored their third goal of the match after Duran assisted sophomore midfielder Jillian Erwin, who did not hesitate one bit and sent the ball to the back of the net.
With 15 minutes into the second half, the Broncos were playing their best soccer of the game and almost scored their fourth goal, after Duran and senior forward Ambria Pogue put up three shots total in less than two minutes, but the Golden Eagles’ goalkeeper denied the attempts. Despite the good moment for the Broncos, the Golden Eagles three minutes later scored their only goal of the match.
For the remainder of the match, both teams put up a total of six shots in the final 25 minutes.
Following the big win at home, the Broncos traveled to San Diego to face the UC San Diego Tritons for the semifinal.
During the first half, the match was pretty even as the Broncos had three shots and the Tritons had four shots.
In the second half, the struggles offensively for the Broncos were significant as they were outshot 2-9 by the Tritons. Despite the Tritons’ numerous shots, the Broncos’ defense was able to deny all the attempts and the match went into double overtime.
After a scoreless first half of overtime, the Tritons ended the game after Christina Oddone blasted a shot to the back of the net to send the Tritons to the finals.
On Nov. 18, the Broncos found out if they will make it into the NCAA Division II first round.