FULLERTON, Calif.— The UC Riverside Women's Team (10-0-1, 1-0-0) matched its best start in 14 years Sunday night downing Cal State Fullerton (3-8-2, 0-1-1) 3-1 to open Big West play.
The Highlanders allowed just its second goal of the year, but grabbed three of their own as sophomore Alexis Vera and senior Nerisse Bugho each notched their first scores of the season and Maddie Feist knocked in her 7th to tie for the conference lead.
"Nerisse is always a threat on the wing and Alexis scored a ton of goals for us in the preseason, so seeing them get thier first tonight came at no surprise," said Head Coach Nat Gonzalez. "The other team was focused on our other scorers so someone needed to step up. It's always next man up."
The teams went into half time tied at 0-0, but early in the 2nd half the Highlanders would break the silence in the 50th minute as Vera picked up a rebound off of a shot by senior Quinley Quezada and drilled it in to finish the play and give UCR the lead.
10 minutes later the Titans would ice the match with a goal of their own
In the 69th minute, Bugho received a pass from freshman Akari Shimizu in the box and dribbled past her defender to punch it in and regain the lead 2-1.
With just over 30 minutes of regulation to go the Highlander defense would hold strong despite seven shots on goal for Cal State Fullerton. The Titans had a solid opportunity to tie the match again as a shot was taken inside a crowded box, but senior Allyssa Troy blocked what surely would have been a goal and UCR was able to clear the ball to midfield.
"Our team really understands that defending is a group effort," Gonzalez explained. "The game of soccer requires everyone to defend and everyone did their job Today. Troy's block was a momentum shifter for us."
The Highlanders would cap off the match with an insurance score as Vera struck again dribbling around her defender, pulling the keeper, and delivering a perfect pass to Feist who then fired it through the posts. This would be Vera's first assist on the season.
UC Riverside got it done on both ends of the field winning the save battle 6-3 and the and the shot battle 17-9.
"I thought everyone did a really good job at the end of the day" Gonzalez said. "A lot of these games are won and lost in the midfield and our midfield is winning us enough balls to give us these chances."
The Highlanders will now return home for their conference home opener hosting Cal Poly and Santa Barbara next weekend.
