FIRST TOUCHES
3rd - The Anteaters finished the opening weekend of Big West taking home all six points, only the 3rd time Scott Juniper's bunch has done that (2010, 2012). The 2016 Anteaters also went unbeaten going 2-0-1 through the first three.

1,064 - UC Irvine's Sunday win over San Francisco came in front of 1,064 fans, the fifth-highest home audience in program history. It was the seventh crowd of over 1,000 fans for women's soccer in Anteater Stadium, and the first 1,000+ crowd since Oct. 13 vs. UC Davis

18 - Noel Baham had two assists over the weekend giving her 18 for her career, 4th-most in program history. She is 1 of 5 current Anteaters with 10 or more career assists (Palacios - 12, Karlowitsch - 12, Bzeih - 10, Galbraith - 10)

LAST WEEK RECAP
The 'Eaters started off Big West in top form rounding up all six available points with road win at Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara.
 
A Shelby Lee goal in the 30th minute stood up until the Mustangs buried an equalizer in the 88th minute to send the match to overtime Friday night. Elizabeth Hutchison came to the rescue with a sparkling individual effort for the game-winner from outside the box to give UCI the 2-1 victory.
 
Sunday was an offensive barrage sparked by Sydney Carr with goals in the 33rd and 86th minutes. She added an assist and was helped by Noel Baham's four-point day to lead UC Irvine to a 4-1 victory over UC Santa Barbara Sunday afternoon.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
UC Irvine now comes to a treacherous week as its flying high from a road sweep, it now confronts its rival, Long Beach State, before the ever-dangerous trip to Hawai'i.
 
Long Beach State enters conference play again this year with a strong showing in the non-conference going 6-3-1 including a big win over No. 22 Northwestern along with a sweep on the road at UCONN and St. John's to end it. The 49ers began conference play with a shutout of Hawai'i. UCI and LBSU clashed twice last season - a draw at LBSU to open Big West play, and a 3-0 drubbing in the Big West final to send LBSU to the NCAAs. UCI has had the slight upper hand lately going 6-1-3 in the regular season vs. LBSU in regular season matches including a 4-1 mark at home. The 49ers have a balanced scoring attack with seven player with multiple goals led by Tori Bolden (9 pts) and six points each from Katie Pingel and Kaitlin Fregulia. The defense has been stout outside of one contest. Mia Hummel has drawn the start recently allowing two goals over her four matches and just six saves.
 
UCI flies to Hawai'i to finish the week off on Sunday. UH was shutout by UC Davis and LBSU on its recent trip to California. It has played just four home matches and none since August as it returns home to play UCI, a place the Rainbow Wahine have never beaten UCI, in fact Hawai'i has one win and one draw in eight career matches vs. the Anteaters. Sonest Furtado (4 G, 2 A) and Raisa Strom-Okimoto (3 G) pose the biggest offensive threat. Alexis Mata and her backline have been stingy lately and given up multiple goals in just three of 11 matches. Shots are aplenty in their matches, they lead the conference averaging 14.55 a match with Strom-Okimoto's 4.9 per match leading the conference.

FRESHMAN FOUNDATION
UC Irvine's young stars have thrust themselves onto the scene as the season has rolled along. Most notably, forward Sydney Carr who picked up Big West Offensive Player of the Week honors. The honor is the first for a UCI freshman since 2011 when Cami Privett was also named Big West Offensive Player of the Week. Carr becomes the eighth freshman to take home the weekly honor.
 
In her last three matches, Carr has scored three goals and assisted on four totaling seven of the team's last nine goals she's contributed on. One of the goals she was not in on was still handled by a freshman as Claire Grouwinkel deked the keeper in the 64th minute Sunday to produce her first career goal. Four other freshman have joined them in getting minutes this season, and the 'Eaters have received contributions from many others this season posting their first points including Kelsee Pottorff, Martiza Acuna, and Jonnae Joseph.

THROW-INS
+ UC Irvine won the opening two matches of conference play last weekend for just the third time under coach Juniper. The others came in 2010 and 2012. UCI also went unbeaten through the first weekend last season (1-0-1). All three seasons the 'Eaters earned a berth in the Big West Tournament.
+ Sunday's match at Hawai'i will be the Anteaters' second this season outside of California. UCI tied with Arizona in Tucson, 0-0.
+ Six Anteaters have amassed 50 or more career matches played in Andrea Mensen, Alex Karlowitsch, Noel Baham, Lili Andino, Kiana Palacios and Grayson Galbraith. The squad's active leaders are Baham with 71 matches played and Palacios with 59 starts.
+ Kiana Palacios scored three times in the U20 CONCACAF championships finishing third and earning a spot in the U20 Women's World Cup. She added three more goals in the U20WWC in which Mexico reached the Quarterfinals of the knockout round. From there, she has earned a spot with the Mexican National Team playing in friendlies over the offseason in Canada and Sweden
+ Lili Andino has also earned some national team experience playing with the Puerto Rican national squad over the summer
+ UCI's improved to 19-48-8 against the Pac-12 Conference in their history and are 1-1-1 against them this season in addition to an exhibition draw with No. 3 USC, the reigning national champions
+ Last season was the fourth time since 2000, all under coach Juniper, that the squad scored 30 or more goals. UCI allowed less than 20 goals in a season in 2016 for the seventh time in program history and third under coach Juniper