Women's Soccer Goes to Hawai'i, Senior Day vs. UC Davis

Thursday, October 14

Waipi'o, O'ahu

10:00 PM

UC Irvine

Hawai'i

Photo by: Robert Huskey

Women's Soccer Goes to Hawai'i, Senior Day vs. UC Davis

October 12, 2021 | Women's Soccer

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

This Week in UC Irvine Women's Soccer
*UC Irvine (8-4, 3-1) at Hawai'i (0-8-3, 0-4-2)*		Matchup	*UC Davis (8-6, 3-3) vs. UC Irvine (8-4, 3-1)*
Thursday, October 14		Date	Sunday, October 17
Waipi'o, O'ahu		Location	Irvine, Calif.
Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Stadium	Fan Attendance	*Fan Information*	Anteater Stadium	Tickets
Limited Fan Attendance		Promotion	Senior Day & Breast Cancer Awareness Match
10:00 PM PST \| 7:00 PM HST		Kickoff	5:00 PM
ESPN+		How to Watch	ESPN+ with David Gascon
Live Stats		Live Stats	Live Stats
*Anteaters*	*Rainbow Wahine*	Match Notes	*Aggies*	*Anteaters*
Social Media: @UCIwsoc @UCwsoc UC Irvine Women's Soccer #RipEm #TogetherWeZot

Awards Central 2021

A big overtime road win over their rivals have UCI at nine points on very much in the title race, and now two matches this week at Hawai'i and home Sunday for Senior Day vs. the Aggies.

Storylines
· UCI's lone match last week was a big road victory over rivals, Long Beach State, to kick off the Black & Blue Rivalry Series in 2021. UCI pitched its fourth shutout of the season behind Glo Hinojosa winning 1-0 and allowing just two shots on goal, and the UCI goal came in overtime from freshman defender, Kiera Smeenge, to put UCI into the postseason picture at 3-1 in Big West play and nine points.
· UCI's match at Hawai'i Thursday will be the first athletic event this year in which Hawai'i is allowing fan attendance. More information for traveling fans can be found on Hawai'i athletic website.
· The Anteaters will celebrate their 2021 seniors at Sunday's match vs. UC Davis. UCI touts 11 seniors - Scarlett Camberos, Amber Huff, Alex Jaquez, Maddy Chavez, Julia Gonzalez, Destinee Manzo, Glo Hinojosa, Piper Wurth, Sam Nieto, Ryan Verhoeven, and Jay Her.
· The Anteaters debuted their pink jerseys vs. UC Riverside and will wear them throughout the entire month of October at home as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month as they have the past few years. UCI will also promote Breast Cancer Awareness on their October 17 match at Anteater Stadium vs. UC Davis along with celebrating its seniors on that evening.
· Laila El Behery began u20 Women's World Cup qualifying with the Egyptian under-20 National Team. She was overseas for both legs of their tie with the Republic of Congo, falling 4-2 in aggregate, and missing matches vs. UC San Diego and at Long Beach State. A second Anteater also returned to national team action as alum Jessica Miclat rejoined the Philippines national team defeating Nepal and Hong Kong, 2-1, to qualify for the 2022 Women's Asian Cup in an attempt to qualify for the 2023 Women's World Cup.
· UCI has seen a lot of firsts in 2021 with nine different players recording their first career point, seven scoring their first career goal, and firsts in goal with Glo Hinojosa earning her first career wins and shutouts in 2021. There have been 13 UCI debuts this season, 12 making collegiate debuts, and four debuts from international players with Laila El Behery from Egypt, Sophie Gillies from England, Aveka Singh from India, and Suus de Bakker from the Netherlands.

0.829 - The Big West's leader in goals-against-average is Glo Hinojosa at 0.829
58 - The Anteaters have taken home 58 Big West points over the past four seasons, most of any Big West school
17 - 17 Anteaters have recorded a point in 2021 along with 10 different goalscorers and 7 'Eaters with game-winners
7 - Anteaters have taken home 7 Big West Player of the Week awards with Laila El Behery's 2nd this week
3 - UC Irvine has reached OT in 3 matches in 2021, and in all 3 they've won winning vs. CSUN, at Cal, and at LBSU
11 - The Anteaters will honor 11 seniors on Sunday's home match vs. UC Davis

This Week's Matches
· The 'Eaters have leapt back into the Big West title race after losing the conference opener. At nine points, 3-1 in four matches, UCI still has a match in hand to many and two matches to some schools. This week features matches at Hawai'i fresh off a pair of home draws and a road overtime loss at Cal State Fullerton, and back home Sunday afternoon to face UC Davis battling with nine points as well.
· Hawai'i had been on the upswing with nine wins in 2018 going 4-4 in Big West play, and a 4-1-3 Big West record in 2019 earning a spot in the Big West Tournament for the first time, but have nothing to show for yet in 2021 with an 0-8-3 mark overall. The Rainbow Wahine have been competitive with a goal against Long Beach State, four of five losses by one goal, and draws with UCSB and UC Riverside. All-time, UCI leads 8-2-1 in the series, however, Hawai'i took the 2019 matchup, 3-0, winning for the first time in Waipio in five chances. The Rainbow Wahine rank low in most stat categories outside of keeper Lauren Marquez who has played over 1,000 minutes and has 4.33 saves per match. UH has put 47% of their shots on frame with Kelci Sumida leading with 20 shots and four of their seven goals. Hawai'i does lead all Big West schools averaging 12.5 fouls per match.
· UC Davis enters the week with an 8-6 record and will start the week with a big test against Long Beach State. The Aggies began conference with road wins at CSUB and CSUN and is the only team to take down Cal Poly, 2-0, but has mixed in an overtime loss to UCSB, and dropped road matches at Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside last week. Four road wins already and the final road game on the schedule heading to Irvine where UCI won, 2-1, back in 2019 to even the overall series, 10-10-4. The Aggies attack with the most shots (16.79) and shots on goal (7.29) per game and one of the best scoring squads while being very disciplined with just 7.2 fouls per match. Leslie Fregoso leads that charge with the most shots and shots on goal in the Big West along with five goals in addition to Risa Yamada with five as well. Keeper Nicki Rucki has been the keeper for all 14 matches stopping 43 shots and part of all five shutouts.

2021 So Far
· The 'Eaters bounced back from a loss to open Big West play by winning the last three. Most recently, UCI picked up three points on an overtime winner over rivals Long Beach State on a 98th-minute goal from freshman defender Kiera Smeenge. The 'Eaters continue to dominate LBSU in Big West regular season play now 8-2-4 in those games since coach Juniper took over in 2007.
· UCI defeated Cal for the first time in its history after 13 all-time meetings in double overtime, 1-0, on a Julia Gonzalez goal. It marks the 13th result under head coach Scott Juniper against the Pac-12 (9 wins, 4 draws), and first win over a Pac-12 schools since Oregon in 2017 with two draws since then.
· The home opener was all UCI winning 6-0 over Southern Utah, the program's most goals in a game since 2020 - also a 6-0 home win vs. UC Davis.
· Of UCI's 10 goalscorers, eight have recorded their first career goals in Sophie Gillies, Desiree Mendoza, Chloe Ragon, Alyssa Moore, Laila El Behery, Lilli Rask, Destinee Manzo, and last week adding Kiera Smeenge. Six of them posted their first collegiate points along with four others who did so on assists; Maddy Chavez, Autumn Thompkins, Gianna Creighton, and Mihaela Perez.
· Chloe Ragon scored her first two goals of her career, both accounting for game-winners vs. Southern Utah and again a 102nd-minute double overtime winner against CSUN.
· The Big West Preseason Coaches Poll projects the 'Eaters to finish in a tie for third with UC Santa Barbara. It's the fourth-straight preseason poll the 'Eaters have been picked in the top four. The 'Eaters also drew four first-place votes which led all team in the poll. The 11-player Preseason All-Big West team included a pair of 'Eaters in fourth-year junior forward Scarlett Camberos and third-year sophomore midfielder Gianna Creighton.
· Returning to the roster are 18 Anteaters, 15 that have played minutes for UCI. Joining the 18 returners are 18 newcomers, 15 of which as freshmen. Eight joined the squad in 2020. Ten have joined the fold for 2021 including three from four-year college like Oregon, Air Force, and Nevada. Sophie Gillies shone with five goals of the team's eight in the spring season where they went 3-0-2
Student-Athlete Notes
· Among the new 'Eaters are the international flavor with freshmen Suus de Bakker from the Netherlands, national team members Aveka Singh from India and Laila El Behery of Egypt, and Gillies from England. The roster is also flushed with players connected to Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Ghana, Guam, and Thailand.
· With no soccer in 2020-21, women's soccer still pushed through placing 47 student-athletes on Fall, Winter, and Spring Dean's Lists. Fifteen different 'Eaters earned Dean's List at least two quarters and 10 were recognized all three quarters including current players Maddie Lauro, Maddy Chavez, Sarah Javorsky, Kiera Smeenge, Destinee Manzo, Alyssa Moore, Sarah Ralston, and Halli Stewart.
· Of the 29 'Eaters that have declared a major, 11 different majors are represented with the most common as Sociology with 10 members and another in Social Ecology
· Maddy Chavez leads the way in academic exploits earning scholarships over the past year in the social justice leaders category; specifically the Houts Family and Maxine E Nevin Leider scholarships. Chavez is 1 of 4 Anteaters that are currently Criminology, Law, & Society majors.
· Four Anteaters enter the year as public health policy majors. 'Eater alum, Shelby Lee, was a PHP major toward her nursing school aspirations while she was the Big West's representative at National SAAC conferences where she has spoken on panels regarding mental health and helped toward the Time Management Plan that is currently in place to help student-athletes
· Among the other fields Anteaters are studying toward are three Psychological Science majors, two newcomers as Biomedical engineering majors, and other majors represented such as education, film & media studies, engineering, social ecology, and literary journalism.

Stats To Watch
· Scarlett Camberos leads the team. She ranks among the Big West leaders in shots per game (3rd - 3.36), shots on goal per game (2nd - 1.91), and shot accuracy (2nd - 56.8%).
· Two veterans lead the way in matches played with scoring leader Scarlett Camberos with 47 matches under her belt, 30 as a starter, and midfielder Amber Huff, playing 46 career matches. The leader in starts is Alex Jaquez with 31 in 41 matches.
· As alluded to, Camberos leads all active Anteaters with eight goals scored, matching her 2019 total, and seven assists for 23 points total. Overall, the team returned 50% of their goals scored in 2019.
· Glo Hinojosa has recorded all eight UCI wins in 2021 including her first four career shutouts. She's stopped 31 shots in her eight matches along with a Big West-best 0.83 goals-against-average. Hinojosa currently has a 266-minute scoreless streak under her belt resulting in three wins and two shutouts.
· Head Coach Scott Juniper is back with his staff for his 16th year with the program, 15th year as the head coach, and 14th season of NCAA soccer. Juniper is the program's all-time winningest coach with 141 wins, three Big West titles, and a Big West-best 67 points over the last four-plus seasons in conference games.

Fans In The Stands
· UC Irvine soccer and Anteater Stadium welcomes back 100% capacity attendance for the 2021 season. In accordance with updated public health guidance regarding COVID-19, UC Irvine Athletics events will be at full-seating capacity for the upcoming 2021-22 season. Athletics will align with the latest state guidance regarding indoor and outdoor events as well as county, city, and campus directives.
· All UC Irvine home matches will be broadcasted on ESPN+ for 2021 following the new Big West deal. David Gascon will be on the call for each game, and links to watch and follow along can be found on ucirvinesports.com or @UCIwsoc social media.
· In 2019, UC Irvine women's soccer set a UCI soccer record for regular season crowd with 1,704 fans to see UCI take on No. 4 UCLA. It was the fourth-largest crowd in stadium history behind three postseason matches by the men's soccer program

'Eaters Playing Professionally
· Kiana Palacios and Janelly Farias have joined forces for Club America in Mexico's top league. The duo opened the season on July 18 each scoring a goal in the club's 2-1 win over Santos Laguna. This is Farias' second season with the club after playing previously with her hometown Chivas Guadalajara. Palacios joined this season after three with Spain's Real Sociedad. Both also play with the Mexican Senior National Team.
· Mady Solow has been playing professionally since graduating in 2013 starting in Italy and stints with the Polish National Team. She spent a season in Switzerland with FC Basel before settling back in Italy with Hellas Verona for a second season now.
· Cami Privett is stateside now in her fifth season with Houston Dash as a midfielder and defender. She first joined the club after an open tryout right after graduating from UCI in 2014. She was loaned out to a Norwegian club for 2017 and then to Spain in the same league as Palacios for 2018-19 before returning to Houston where she's stayed and made 19 appearances.
· Jessica Miclat finished up in 2019 and set off on the global scene. She had been part of the Philippines National Team since her junior year and participated in international tournaments and World Cup qualifiers. She continues to work with them, but also signed on with Danish club, Aalborg, late last season. The season for her and the club begins this August.