Sports

LBSU, UC Irvine battle to scoreless tie

The Long Beach State women’s soccer team played to a scoreless tie against UC Irvine in double overtime Sunday afternoon at George Allen Field.

While the ‘Niners dominated all aspects of the game, they could not finish scoring opportunities.

“One-on-one’s are much harder than people [looking in] think it is, but honestly, we should have finished the opportunities, myself included,” senior midfielder Hayley Bolt said. Bolt was busy in the second half and overtime periods as she was in on several scoring opportunities.

After a slow first half, the intensity increased in the second half and both overtime periods as the 49ers out-shot the Anteaters 16-5.

LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said that the ball hit everything but the net: “the post, the keeper, and the crossbar once, I think?”

“We couldn’t get that ‘one’,” he said. “We did everything but score.”

Both teams had a good chance to score in the first half, but were not able to capitalize on the chances. First, Bolt had a crossing shot that went wide of the goalkeeper. Then the Anteaters could not finish off a header from a corner kick.

Sahar Haghdan, who was not available for Wednesday’s loss to the University of San Diego, was once again not in the lineup because of a hip flexor. Bolt, who is usually a midfielder, was placed in Haghdan’s forward position.

“We needed bodies up front, and Hayley did a good job up front,” Ingrassia said.

UCI head coach Scott Juniper was happy with the tie.

“We came to win the game. In a conference with good teams you have to find a way to win the game. [To get] a point away against Long Beach is a big point, because not too many teams come in here and get a tie,” he said.

LBSU (8-4-3, 2-0-1 Big West Conference) hit the road next weekend for two games. The team will play UC Riverside on Friday night, and then visit CS Fullerton on Sunday night. Both Games are at 6 p.m.

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