SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The scoreboard did not reflect the fight shown from the UC Riverside softball team on Saturday, as the Highlanders dropped both games of Saturday's doubleheader 3-0 and 8-7 (9) at Campus Diamond in Santa Barbara. 

Results aside, head coach Nikki Palmer remained impressed with her team's upward trajectory with each passing game.

"I'm so proud of our constant growth this season," said Palmer, who was recently named co-head coach of the Israeli National Team. "We came up short today, but I'm proud of our women for pushing UC Santa Barbara to nine innings in game two."

Early strikes from the Gauchos doomed UCR in game one, with all three UC Santa Barbara runs coming in the first two innings. Despite Katherine Montuya stealing her sixth base of the season in the first inning after a walk, the Highlanders' only offense came from hits from Marissa Burk, Briza Blanco, Allison Troche and Maiah Motta. 

UCR turned up the offense in game two, going down 4-0 after one but eventually taking a 7-6 lead on a sixth-inning RBI single from Montuya.

Kennedi Sorensen got the scoring started for UC Riverside in the back end of the doubleheader, doubling for the 10th time this season and scoring Motta and Gigi Araki.

Sorensen went 2 for 3 in total for game two with a run in addition to her RBIs.

UCR will finish off the 2021 season on Sunday afternoon with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch against the Gauchos.