FIRST TOUCHES

3 - Kiana Palacios continues to climb the Anteater career records now in the top 10 of 3 different stats - 6th in points with 58, tied for 6th in goals with 23, and tied for 4th in game-winners with 8. Noel Baham also stands in a tie for 5th all-time with 16 career assists

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

9 & 4 - The line has been drawn for the 2017 Anteaters at 9 shots and 4 shots on goal per game. When the offense produces more than that, UCI is 5-0-2, and 0-3-1 when they've fallen below those totals. Ironically, UCI defeated UCSB in 2016 with 2 total shots

LAST WEEK RECAP
UC Irvine completed the non-conference portion of their schedule with a trip up to Santa Clara before closing the week out at home against San Francisco.
 
The 'Eaters jumped out to the early lead against the Broncos with a 7th-minute goal from Noel Baham. SCU tied things up late in the half, and then found the game-winner in the 83rd minute to dash UCI's hopes with a 2-1 defeat.
 
UCI found its stride Sunday in front of 1,064 fans, the program's fifth-largest home audience. Sydney Carr scored her first career goal on a breakaway in the 20th minute, and then assisted on goals from Lili Andino in the 21st and Kiana Palacios in the 68th to complete the 3-0 victory and the team's seventh shutout of the year.

CONFERENCE PLAY AWAITS
The big push begins now as nine Big West schools will vie for four tournament spots in November to earn the conference's automatic bid to the Big West Tournament.

The conference finished non-conference play at an even 40-40-16 and the 11th-rated conference in the nation out of 32 conferences. Entering the week, UC Irvine's RPI sits at 69th in the nation which is within reach of at-large berth territory. In UCI's five wins, the average RPI of teams they beat was 154 while the average RPI of the team's three losses was 24 all-in-all meaning the 'Eaters beat the opponents they were supposed to beat and fell to the schools that were favored against them. The three draws may become the swing results for the squad with teams like LMU (RPI 26) and Arizona (RPI 44) helping UCI's resume and Penn (RPI 201) hurting it depending on which will weigh more in the committee's eyes.
 
With the goal still making and winning the conference tournament, UCI's next eight opponents are a pivotal to reach the Big West tourney and set themselves up for a postseason spot. To get there, the mark of 14 points has been the cutoff for tournament teams over the last three seasons. LBSU stands as the top dog going 6-3-1 with an RPI of 53. The only other conference foe with an RPI better than 100 is UC Santa Barbara at 98. Cal State Fullerton's 7-2-2 mark leads the Big West, and reigning regular season champ CSUN remains a threat to return to the top. Hawai'i built up a 5-4 non-conference mark, and the 'Eaters will have to travel to the island in their matchup which is never an easy task as is a trip to Cal Poly. UC Davis and UC Riverside have struggled with just four wins between them against teams like San Francisco and Toledo, and each will travel to Anteater Stadium.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
With the end of non-conference play, the 'Eaters begin their eight-game season with a trip up the Central Coast to Cal Poly and UCSB.
 
UCI opens against Cal Poly who end non-conference play with a 5-5-1 mark. Like the 'Eaters, matched up with San Francisco (T, 2-2), Oregon (L, 2-1), and Santa Clara (L, 1-0). UCI comes in as the fifth and six straight home matches where the Mustangs have gone 3-1 through the first four after playing the first seven this season away from home. The 'Eaters came from behind scoring twice in the second half to win last year's matchup, 2-1, in Anteater Stadium. Last year's goalscorer for the Mustangs returns in Emily Hansen as does the leading scorer, Megan Abutin, with her four goals and Megan Demijohn coming off a player of the week honor for two game-winners in a week. Brittney Viboch has been called upon in net lately allowing two goals over the last four matches.
 
UCI finishes at UC Santa Barbara, a squad sitting at 4-4-3 coming off a 4-0 win vs. Denver improve on a 1-3-3 mark in September leading up to it. Like the 'Eaters, UCSB also drew with LMU (1-1) and fell to Pepperdine (1-0). The 'Eaters come in as the last of six home matches in seven games, a place where they're 2-1-2 this season. UCI won the 2016 matchup as UCI managed just two shots, but one was a 19th-minute Noel Baham goal. Gaucho playmaker Amanda Ball was held shotless, but she has taken her usual rank atop the conference with eight goals this year and is second in the Big West in shots. Other contributors have been Christine Maurer (3 G, 1 A) and Shaelan Murison (2 G, 1 A) while Sophia Dertorossian and Kate Shoemaker have been solid in front of the goalkeeping duo of Maddie Julian (5 GA, 17 SV) and Brittney Rogers (7 GA, 14 SV) who have essentially split time for the Gauchos.

THROW-INS
+ Five Anteaters have amassed 50 or more career matches played in Andrea Mensen, Alex Karlowitsch, Noel Baham, Kiana Palacios and Grayson Galbraith. The squad's active leaders are Baham with 69 matches played and Palacios with 59 starts. Redshirt freshman Shelby Petty made her collegiate debut in the 85th minute Sunday
+ 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