Women's soccer plays twice this week looking to get back in the Big West title race with a return trip to Cal State Fullerton Wednesday and another Sunday home tilt with UC Riverside

Storylines
· The Anteaters dropped its Big West opener to newcomer UC San Diego in the first meeting of the programs since 1992. The 'Eaters had another international debut as Suus de Bakker, Dutch native, played the final five minutes after being injured through non-conference. Julia  Gonzalez also made her first career start in her 24th career match as an 'Eater.
· UCI was 1 of 2 Big West programs with a winning non-conference record. The Anteaters finished non-conference play with a 5-3 record including wins over two Big West teams and one over a Pac-12. In coach Juniper's 14 years as head coach, it's the ninth non-conference with five or more wins and also ninth entering Big West play with a winning record.
· The Anteaters will debut their pink jerseys once again throughout the entire month of October 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. In the opening match of the second round against the Republic of Congo, the sides drew, 0-0. The second leg of the round takes place in Brazzaville, Congo on October 9 . 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.
· Six different goalscorers vs. Southern Utah included four players with their first career goals and points - Alyssa Moore, Lilli Rask, Laila El Behery, and Chloe Ragon. Seven players earned their first career point over the first two weekends including the five goal scorers and those adding assists such as Autumn Thompkins and Gianna Creighton. More firsts have come for freshman Desiree Mendoza putting home her first career point for the game-winning goal, fourth-year defender Maddy Chavez recorded her first career point on an assist in the win at LMU, and Mihaela Perez added her first career point on an assist against Cal State Fullerton making her the ninth Anteater to collect their first career point in 2021.
 
2 - 2 Anteaters joined national teams - Laila El Behery with Egypt u20 and Jessica Miclat joins Philippines
9 - 9 Anteaters have posted their first career points this season including six players with their first collegiate goals
13th - UCI's win over Cal was its first in the 13th all-time meeting, and coach Juniper's 13th result vs. the Pac-12
6 - Anteaters have taken home 6 Big West Player of the Week awards with Glo Hinojosa this week
4th - UCI had its 4th 2021 int'l debut with Suus de Bakker from Netherlands join India, Egypt, & England nationals
5-3 - UCI finished non-conference 5-3 for the 9th time under coach Juniper with 5 non-conf. wins and a winning record

This Week's Matches
· Big West play rolls on with a road match Wednesday and home again on Sunday. The 'Eaters take on Cal State Fullerton Wednesday, the program picked to finish second, and the Highlanders of UC Riverside on Sunday, a program picked to finish 10th in the preseason Big West coaches poll.
· The Titans have turned things around since the meeting with UCI on September 5. UCI handed CSF its fifth straight loss scoring a game-winner down to 10 players, 2-1. CSF lost its sixth straight after that at Colorado before going on a run of wins over Northern Colorado, UC Riverside, and Loyola Marymount. Big West play began with an overtime loss at Cal Poly, 3-2, before swiping a 1-0 win at UC Santa Barbara. Goals are aplenty in CSF matches with four shutouts total in 11 matches. Callie Petrey-Juarez 11 points lead the way including a PK goal against UCI, complimented by four goals from freshman Karla Rodriguez, eight points from Haley Brown, and sophomore Meghan Schroh with four assists. DeAira Jackson has taken over in net with 30 saves in eight matches and a Defensive Player of the Week honor.
· UC Riverside began with a pair of wins over Cal Baptist and LMU, but have fallen off since winning once at Weber State in eight matches. The Highlanders hung with UCSB to start Big West play losing, 2-1, despite each team with seven shots. They followed that up with a 3-0 loss at Cal Poly being outshot, 23-3, allowing two goals via penalty kick. On the year, UCR averages exactly one goal a game while allowing exactly two. Senior Alexis Vera and sophomore Alexandra Hargrave pace the offense leading in shots and two goals for each while junior Leigh Polson has contributed on three goals. Freshman Cassia Souza has a pair of the wins and a shutout in net stopping 38 shots.

2021 So Far
· UC Irvine remains the only side to score against UCLA this year falling 3-1 in the season opener. Since, the Bruins have shutout Oregon, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, San Diego, San Diego State, and Santa Clara.
· 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.
· UCI's 16 goals match its 2019 season total. Of UCI's eight goalscorers, six have recorded their first career goals in Sophie Gillies, Desiree Mendoza, Chloe Ragon, Alyssa Moore, Laila El Behery, and Lilli Rask. Five 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 and Big West Conference with 11 points from four goals and three assists and 1.38 points per match. She's also directed 59.1% of her shots on goal to lead the conference.
· Two veterans lead the way in matches played with scoring leader Scarlett Camberos with 44 matches under her belt, 27 as a starter, and midfielder Amber Huff, playing 43 career matches. The leader in starts is Alex Jaquez with 28 in 38 matches.
· As alluded to, Camberos leads all active Anteaters with eight goals scored now after her first career brace vs. Cal State Fullerton, and six assists for 22 points total. Overall, the team returned 50% of their goals scored in 2019.
· Glo Hinojosa has recorded all five UCI wins in 2021 including her first two career shutouts. She's stopped 21 shots in her eight matches along with a Big West-best 1.03 goals-against-average. Together with Taesja Paopao, the keepers have a .676 save percentage stopping 23 shots and allowing 11 total goals.
· 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 138 wins, three Big West titles, and a Big West-best 58 points over the last four 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.