COUNTER ATTACKS
10 - 10 Anteaters have made their debuts so far with 7 collegiate debuts and freshman starters Ivy Williams and Clara Samson
:47 - Clara Samson scored 47 seconds into the season and her career, 1 of 3 freshman this year to score in their first minute
 

THROW-INS
10th - The coaching staff of Scott Juniper, P.J. Woolridge, and Danielle de Seriere enter their 10th season together with 87 wins
101 - In program history, 101 Anteaters have played in 50+ career matches with Emilie Castagna set to reach it Thursday
 

SET PIECES
1st - UCI became the 2nd team to beat a 1-seed in the first round in 2023, but is now the 1st to also reach the Sweet Sixteen
7 - UCI joins UNC, Florida State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, BYU, and Memphis as the 7 programs to reach the last 2 Sweet 16s




 

· UCI finished last week 0-1-1. Laila El Behery knocked in her ninth career goal to reach 20 career points. Ivy Williams assisted it for her first career point.
· Ashley Naylor made both starts in net grabbing 10 saves with six against Stanford alone. She picked up her first win Thursday at Saint Mary's, and combined on a shutout with Laurynn Ziller who made her collegiate debut and played over 20 minutes in the first two matches.
· Clara Samson started her account early with a goal 47 seconds into her career that ended up being the game-winner Thursday at Saint Mary's. She joined three other freshmen in college soccer to score in the opening minute of their team's opening match in 2024 - Shea Collins (34 seconds) for South Carolina and Julia Acosta (40 seconds) for Fordham.
· Anteaters have seen 10 of their 12 points earned by newcomers including Kaitlyn Paculba's two-goal game. Samson, Williams, and Mia Colombini also earned the first points of their collegiate careers with Samson's goal and assists for Williams and Colombini
· Anteater milestones have been reached and are within reach. Emilie Castagna's next match will be her 50th, meanwhile Aislynn Crowder and Chloe Ragon have reached 60 matches, and Kiera Smeenge is one away from 70. Desiree Mendoza reach 60 starts last game with Lawson Willis now over 50 starts and up to 75 matches in her collegiate career. Minutes milestones are falling as well with Kiera Smeenge eclipsing 5,000 career minutes this year, Mihaela Perez, Crowder, Ragon, and Mendoza have all surpassed 3,000 minutes, and Laila El Behery just made it to 2,000 career minutes. Thursday, there's chances for Naylor to reach 3,000 needing just 52 minutes, and Autumn Thompkins is 39 from 1,000 career minutes

Thursday vs. the Dons
· UC Irvine and San Francisco meet for the 11th time with UCI up in the series, 6-3-1. That has included six straight wins, five under coach Juniper, and seven straight unbeaten. All three wins for USF in the all-time series came prior to 1991. Last time in Anteater Stadium in 2017, UCI took a 3-0 win.
· Last meeting in 2018, the 'Eaters had the men's team in the stands cheering who were to play USF the next day, and it helped Lili Andino break a 2-2 tie in a see-saw match and win 3-2 in the 83rd minute.
· The Dons started the season with a one-goal loss to Stanford despite a large shot disparity, and then followed that with shutout wins over UCSD and Northeastern. Cal put an abrupt halt to their run with a 6-1 drubbing Sunday as the Dons head to UCI for their only non-conference road matchup. USF has four goals from four different scorers putting 25 of 52 shots on target

Sunday vs. the Wildcats
· UC Irvine and Arizona meet for the sixth time and second in Irvine. The Wildcats won a 1-0 game in 2018, 1 of 3 meetings since 2017. UCI got its only win in the series in 2009 topping them, 2-1
· After a draw in 2017 and 1-0 loss in 2018, Arizona kicked up a 4-0 win in Tucson most recently in 2019 which featured Anteater Madison Goerlinger scoring her first career goal.
· The Wildcats opened with shutout wins over Grand Canyon, Pacific, and Northern Arizona before a 2-0 loss at No. 5 North Carolina and will face Pepperdine before heading to UCI. The offense has been spread around pretty well with eight different goal scorers aside from grad senior Nicole Dallin's 4-goal game vs. Pacific. The defense led by Rikako Hayami and Ella Hatteberg have stood tall helping Olivia Ramey face only two shots on goal before her nine save effort vs. UNC