IRVINE, Calif. --- A slow start for UC Irvine women's soccer Thursday night in Anteater Stadium for the regular season finale against Hawai'i was flipped with authority to a 4-1 victory and a berth in the Big West Tournament.
VISITORS CENTER
The match opened with a bang for the visitors as Hawai'i (6-6-3, 3-4-3) started the scoring on the game's first shot. Krista Peterson gathered the ball along the sideline centering it to Eliza Ammendolia who took space and sent a perfectly-placed shot over
Glo Hinojosa and in from range to make it a 1-0 lead for the Rainbow Wahine in the fifth minute.
The excitement was halted soon after as a collision in Hawai'i's 18-yard box injured Rainbow Wahine keeper Lauren Marquez forcing her to leave the match just six minutes in replaced by Brianna Chirpich for her first minutes of the season.
With both sides playing for a win in a battle for the final Big West Tournament spot, the attacks continued to mount. UCI (7-5-6, 3-2-5) now desperate for a goal launched everything they had at Hawai'i and keeper Chirpich. The Anteaters registered 15 shots with Chirpich denying four on target before the dam finally broke in the 39th minute.
Amber Huff placed a long throw-in into the box that found
Suus de Bakker with a header shot heading to goal. The block kept it in the six-yard box and
Erin Covey dancing and creating space before gaining position and turning a shot just inside the post and in for the equalizer, 1-1.
Â
The emotions doubled just 80 seconds later has Huff punted a ball ahead finding
Alyssa Moore behind the defense, and she would gather and fire through Chirpich and in to sudden flip the match to a 2-1 Anteater lead in the 40th minute heading into the half.
Â
LAYING IT ON THE LINE
The second half opened with Hawai'i taking on the role of aggressor now searching for an equalizer as they needed only a single point to keep their season alive. A prime opportunity came in the 50th minute as Kelci Sumida beared down on goal along the right wing with an uncontested look, but Hinojosa swallowed it up to preserve the one-goal lead.
A flurry of fouls and cautions for the Rainbow Wahine along with an unusual number of injuries took a lot out of the pace of the match as it rumbled on into the final half hour. The next goal came just in time for UCI to push it to a two-goal lead in the 79th minute.
Emilie Castagna and
Amber Huff played off each other along the left wing before Huff found some real estate and swung a cross in right on
Sophie Gillies leaping at the goalmouth and volleying home UCI's third goal making it a 3-1 lead.
Â
Hawai'i battled back adding a pair of well-conceived shots including a set piece that just slipped over the bar and landed on top of the goal netting. But UCI weathered that storm and was rewarded with a fourth goal. Again, Huff started off the action slicing in another cross from the other touchline this time hitting
Lilli Rask on a bounce as she put a high boot on the pass and chipped it up and over Chirpich for the crushing blow in the 84th minute.
Â
FINAL SCORE: UC IRVINE 4, HAWAI'I 1
The Anteaters saved one of their best offensive performances for when they really needed it. The four goals are the second-best in a match this season, and equaled their entire total from the last seven matches.
Four different goalscorers took part with Covey starting things off with her second of the season and Moore, Gillies, and Rask all collecting their third. Moore once again came away with the game-winner as all three of her goals this season and each of her last four goals dating back to 2021 have been.
The statline of the evening belonged to
Amber Huff who assisted on three goals and was the catalyst to the fourth with a throw-in that put the wheels in motion. She entered the match with six in her career and now with four on the season ties for the team lead. Her three assists in a single match tie an Anteater record done only three times before in program history and not since Tanya Taylor did so in 2010.
Emilie Castagna joined in with an assist as well, her second.
"This just shows that it comes in waves," Huff said of her performance as well as the team's. "You've got to work hard, consistently. Sometimes it shows, sometimes it doesn't. Tonight, it showed and I'm grateful for the opportunities I got. I'm glad we put away the goals we needed to move on, and now we just keep working."
Huff and many of her teammates were playing likely the last match on home turf in Anteater Stadium and were determined to not make it their last match ever.
"We had a lot to lose in this game. We're fighting for the last seat in the tournament which is important but hard to deal with. Everyone was hungry and wanted more, they didn't want to finish tonight with a loss and be out. We worked hard, did what we needed to do, and we're moving on to the Big West Tournament."
One of those joining Huff was
Erin Covey who got the scoring going now with a second career goal coming in her last five matches.
"Practice this whole week was just follow, follow, follow after every shot, every cross, and that was just stuck in my head. Once, I saw the ball enter I was saying where is it at, I need to go to it and went as hard as I could and slid it in."
The Anteaters finished with a decisive 26-7 shot advantage helped by the 19 first-half shots. They turned nine on target with five stopped by replacement keeper Chirpich.
Glo Hinojosa missed on the first shot on target, but corralled the other two she saw in the second half to earn win No. 23 of her career to put her alone in sixth in program history.
For Hinojosa as well as Huff, Covey, and a slew of teammates, they likely all played their final match in Anteater Stadium with Huff and Covey reflecting on their accomplishment in their final home game.
"I don't think we're done yet with the wins; I think we've got a lot to go, but it's going to be sad reminiscing especially with this being my last game in Anteater Stadium. I'm just glad we put it away with the 4-1 win."
"This was kind of the perfect setup - home field, under the lights, we had a great turnout with the fans, and we brought it. We wanted to win so badly to get into the tournament, and we're just getting started."
The tournament does come up quickly with the first round matches scheduled for Sunday, October 30. The Anteaters claimed the sixth and final seed in the first year of the tournament's expansion from four to six teams. The first matchup will send UC Irvine across town to Cal State Fullerton as the No. 3 seed. Kickoff for that match is 5:00 p.m. with the 'Eaters looking to turn the tables after losing there in non-conference play and then playing to a scoreless draw in Big West action earlier this month. From there, the winner of the matchup with face UC Davis in the semifinals with the final two rounds of the tournament taking place at Cal Poly who came away with the Big West crown outright after sharing it with UC Irvine a year ago.
