The Long Beach State women’s soccer team (5-6-1) took another positive step into its maturation by coming out with a draw against the University of San Diego Toreros (6-4-2) yesterday at George Allen Field.
The draw comes days after the 49ers claimed a much-needed victory against the UC Davis Aggies this past Sunday that helped raise the spirits of the young team.
“That’s a very tough [USD] team. It shows a lot of grit and character from [the 49ers],” LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia. “With as many young kids as we have, the result is a positive.”
Going into the match, the 49ers looked to avenge their loss to the Toreros in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, San Diego was looking to rebound from an embarrassing 4-0 loss to No. 14 USC last Friday.
Early on, San Diego kept the 49er defense on its heels, but the match stayed scoreless.
“The first ten minutes, we were pretty flat,” Ingrassia said. “They do a good job of playing up-tempo and they play fast. They go after it and force you into mistakes.”
After those 10 minutes, the 49ers stepped up their effort and went with a press defense, where they didn’t allow Toreros players any space, negating USD’s quickness.
Long Beach’s success against the San Diego attack can be largely attributed to defender Chantel Hubbard.
“Chantel was big time back there,” Ingrassia said. “She played very well for us [on defense].”
Hubbard and the rest of the 49 defense kept Torero leading scorer forward Stephanie Ochs to one shot on goal.
However, even with a tough defense, Long Beach was having a tough time translating its good defense to many goal-scoring opportunities. This was notable in the midfield.
“We couldn’t figure it out between Lindsay [Bullock] and Markie [Gleason], we just weren’t moving well,” Ingrassia said.
As the match progressed, the 49ers found more success in getting the ball to their forwards but it was too late.
Forward Nadia Link came close to securing a Long beach lead in the first overtime when her shot from the right curved just over the cross bar. It was the closest the 49ers came to scoring all day.
Link and Bullock tallied three shots apiece.
From there on out, the two teams traded scoring opportunities but neither could find the back of the net.
Overall, the 49ers out-shot the Toreros, 12-11, but San Diego goalkeeper Courtney Parsons registered only three saves. 49ers’ goalie Emily Kingsborough finished the game with six saves.
The 49ers host the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners (4-7-1) in a nonconference match this Sunday in an attempt to push their unbeaten streak to three games.
Game notes
LBSU forward Nicole Sweetman was ineligible to play in Wednesday’s game after being sent off with a red card in Sunday’s 2-1 win over UC Davis.