UCI was able to tread water in a scoreless draw against conference leader Cal State Fullerton Friday night as the 'Eaters sit in a tie for the final tournament spot with seven points. Two immense matches loom with a trip to 9-win CSUN before a Sunday night contest in Anteater Stadium against rival Long Beach State with tournament hopes on the line for each
88th -
Carley Brown made the Starting XI in each match in Tucson making her the
88th Anteater in program history with 50 career matches
70 -
Maddie Newsom started her
70th match Friday tying the program record for keepers. It was also her
70th overall match becoming the third keeper to reach the mark, and recently played her 6,500th minute and captured her 20th shutout
.653 - UC Irvine's rigorous non-conference ledger was the 6th-toughest in the nation with the group of opponents putting together a .653 winning percentage (88-42-20) to this point featuring eight programs with winning records, and seven programs ranked or receiving votes nationally
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STORYLINES
UCI powered through its lone match last week holding Cal State Fullerton scoreless in a 0-0 draw for the first time all season. The 'Eaters stand in fourth place in the conference tied with UC Santa Barbara.
The 'Eaters could reach the pivotal 13-point mark with wins in each match this week. In the 11 years the Big West has played with nine schools, every team to earn 13 points except for three have made the Big West Tournament - one team was CSUN in 2015 and two others came in 2009 when there was a three-way tie for fourth place at 13 points that UCI won via a tiebreaker
Maddie Newsom started her 70th match on Friday tying
Danielle de Seriere for the most keeper starts. She will surpass de Seriere in minutes with 11, and is on-pace for the program record just 185 minutes behind Stephanie Boes' mark of 6,795. Her next save will make her the fourth Anteater keeper with 250 in a career, and four saves will tie her for third all-time with Alicia Miller at 253. Friday's draw also marker her 20th career shutout. Newsom secured the first award of 2019 as the Big West's Defensive Player of the Week October 7 as she got her first two wins of the season which included a shutout and seven saves. It's the third weekly award of her career.
Aleah Kelley was named a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award, the third in program history and only from the Big West in 2019. The 10 finalists were named last week with Kelley not on the list.
UCI has taken on three top-10 opponents adding No. 5 BYU to the pair of No. 9s in Virginia and Vanderbilt, the third season all-time facing three ranked foes. UCI opened with a 7-0 loss in their first trip to Virginia, the first time a coach Juniper squad had allowed more than four goals in a match. The Anteater non-conference schedule was littered with challenges with six of their 10 opponents currently receiving national votes.. Texas Tech and Cal have joined the top 25 since the match with UCI. UCI also had a ranked opponent on its exhibition slate falling, 2-1, to UCLA who was ranked No. 4 in the preseason. UCI's non-conference opponents together form a record of 88-42-20, and the non-conference schedule is the sixth-strongest in the NCAA
With a…
...win Thursday, UCI would leap CSUN in the standings and stay firmly within the conference's top four
...win Sunday, UCI would stop a four-match winless streak against LBSU (0-2-2) dating back to the 2015 season
CSUN MATADORS
The Matadors look like a postseason squad coming in at 9-4-3 and three wins in four Big West matches. They drawn with Kansas State and Arizona State and posted close, one-goal losses to Pepperdine and Denver. Entering Thursday, they've won three straight including shutouts of Cal Poly and UCSB helping their conference-best marks of eight shutouts and an 0.72 goals-against-average. Amanda Delgado accounts for most of it with 42 saves and a 0.83 GAA. Alexis White has five goals as part of 11 different CSUN goal scorers
LONG BEACH STATE
The Beach has plummeted to a 3-10 mark after winning the Big West a year ago. The perennial conference contender is 1-3 so far in the Big West narrowly coming back to beat Cal Poly to start and losing three straight since at UCSB and home vs. CSF and UC Davis with the Highlanders at home before the trip to UCI. Elysia Laramie is the scoring key with five goals, and Kaylee Ramirez is the only other with as many as two. Katie Pingel and Sierra Castles each bring three assists as the squad still averages over 12 shots a game. LBSU has allowed just 22 goals through its daunting schedule with Marta Alemany Sanchez stopping 41 shots and picking up their only shutout
