Storylines
UC Irvine women's soccer has a couple exhibitions and scrimmages under its belt as it heads into the start of the regular season Thursday, August 19, at UCLA on the Pac-12 Network and the home opener Sunday, August 22, against Southern Utah with fans back in Anteater Stadium and the first ESPN+ broadcast for UCI soccer.
 
3-0-2 - UCI went 3-0-2 in the Spring of 2021 against Big West schools with 5 of 8 goals coming from the 18 newcomers
58 - UC Irvine leads all Big West clubs over the last four seasons by amassing 58 points in Big West matches
50% - The 'Eaters return 50% of their scoring from 2019. Scarlett Camberos was the team leader with four goals that year
662 - UCI will open the season at UCLA August 22 on Pac-12 Network marking 662 days since the last match in 2019
47 - During Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters in 2020-21, the 'Eaters played 47 student-athletes in the Dean's List
3+ - UCI continues to put out challenging schedules with 3+ Pac-12 opponents for the fourth straight season in 2021
 
· 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 133 wins, three Big West titles, and a Big West-best 58 points over the last four seasons.
· 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. Scoring leaders return in Scarlett Camberos who has four goals and three assists for 11 points. Alex Jaquez has a pair of goal, both game-winners, and has a pair of assists along with Amber Huff and Destinee Manzo. The 'Eaters bring in four keepers with two that have minutes in Glo Hinojosa playing 300 minutes in four matches in 2019 and Taesja Paopao who has played twice including a shutout victory over Northern Colorado.
· Joining the 19 returners are 18 newcomers. Eight joined the squad in 2020 for the season that never happened. 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
· Among the new Anteaters 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.
 
This Week's Matches
· The 2021 season opens with a pair of matches - on the road at UCLA Thursday followed by the home opener Sunday against Southern Utah. Thursday's match will be shown on Pac-12 Network. Sunday's match will be the first ESPN+ broadcast of soccer at Anteater Stadium; all nine home matches for women's soccer will be shown on ESPN+.
· UCLA is the Anteaters' first test in UCI's first game in UCLA's Wallis Annenberg Stadium. The Bruins and the rest of the Pac-12 played an abbreviated 2020 season with UCLA finishing 13-1-3 and 9-1-1 in conference. UCLA reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament falling in PKs to Clemson. To start 2021, UCLA begins the season ranked fifth nationally, and their schedule features four Big West squads including three to start the season. Four Bruin alums appeared on Olympic squads in Tokyo this year as well. The sides met in 2019 in an exhibition match with the Bruins pulling out the 2-1 victory with a goal in the final minutes. All-time, this is the 13th meeting between programs with UCLA leading the series, 7-3-2, however UCI's three wins and one of the draws came at UCLA.
· UCI's home opener comes Sunday afternoon against Southern Utah. The Thunderbirds are under the tutelage of Kai Edwards who has bounced between UCSB, Saint Mary's, Michigan, and most recently Cal. He's begun to turn the program going 5-3-1 in the truncated 2020 season against Big Sky competition. Prior to Edwards' arrival, the Thunderbirds had won three games in the last two seasons. UCI and SUU rekindle their series from when they played in 2008 and 2009, both UCI shutout wins.

Exhibitions
· UCI opened things with an exhibition match at Saint Mary's on August 12. The sides played 110 minutes of action—three 30-minute periods and one 20-minute period. The 'Eaters came away winning 1-0 on a 34th-minute goal by Alyssa Moore assisted by Laila El Behery. Other stats had SMC outshooting UCI, 14-10, and commit 20 fouls to 13. UCI keepers combined for six saves in the shutout.
· In the final tune-up, UCI scrimmaged with Cal Poly Pomona August 15 in Anteater Stadium playing three 30-minute periods. The 'Eaters actually fell behind on a Bronco goal in the 10th minute. The match ended in a 2-1 Anteater victory after equalizing on a Sophie Gillies PK midway through the first half, and a late-match winner by Destinee Manzo curling a shot from outside the box into the upper right.

Student-Athlete Notes
· 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
· Two veterans lead the way in matches played with scoring leader Scarlett Camberos with 35 matches under her belt, 18 as a starter, and midfielder Amber Huff, playing 34 career matches
· The leader in starts is Alex Jaquez starting 19 times in her 29 matches played
· As alluded to, Camberos leads all active Anteaters with four goals scored and three assists for 11 points total. Overall, the team returns 50% of their goals scored in 2019. Jaquez has two career goals, both coming as game-winners.
· The Anteaters enter 2021 with four keepers on the roster. Two returners in Glo Hinojosa and Taesja Paopao. Hinojosa joined the roster in 2018 and began 2019 as the starting keeper seeing 300 minutes in four matches starting three times. Paopao joined in 2019 and played in two matches starting once against Northern Colorado where she shut them out for a 2-0 victory. The remaining two keepers are new to the roster with freshman Gabby Nelms joining from Carlsbad and transfer Hannah Roberts who is originally from the State of Washington and played one match with the University of Nevada in 2019.

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. Specific details regarding health and welfare protocols at specific venues and events will be announced at a later date.
· 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.