Comeback
falls short for 49ers' soccer
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
Winning
on the road is hard. Having to wait an extra
two days to win a road game is even harder.
This is what the Long Beach State
women's soccer team had to overcome in its
3-1 overtime loss to UC Irvine Tuesday night.
The game was originally scheduled for last
Sunday at 2 p.m., but was postponed by the
Big West Conference Commissioner just minutes
before the game was due to start because
of bad air and debris from the Southern
California fires.
"It
definitely made a difference," said
third year 49ers women's soccer head coach
Peter Reynaud. "We had to travel twice
and couldn't practice properly."
UCI
went up 1-0 in the first half off a goal
by Caroline Kabe. Hayley McNallan scored
in the second half to give UCI a 2-0 lead.
The 49ers did not hesitate much longer as
they mounted a comeback to tie the game
and send it into overtime. Forward Allison
Wiegand headed the ball in at the 82 minute
mark for the goal, her seventh of the season.
Junior Kristin Travis, a very dangerous
and talented player on the front line, notched
her first goal of the season just four minutes
later when she beat her defender and fired
her shot from 20 yards out into the net
for the 2-2 tie.
"We
didn't play well in the first half,"
said Reynaud. "We didn't play with
the same level of intensity we played with
in the second half. Consequently that allowed
them to get ahead. If we would have put
two good halves together we would have been
OK, but we didn't"
After
the 49ers came back to tie the game coach
Reynaud felt they had a chance to win the
game.
"The
momentum was with us. It was going well.
I thought we could have won that game,"
said Reynuad.
But
UCI's Lauryn Burkinshaw ended such wishful
thinking when she put back a rebounded shot
just minutes into overtime play to give
the Anteaters the victory.
The
loss snaps the 49ers three game win streak
and knocks them out of first place in the
Big West Conference into a fourth place
tie with UCI. Despite the loss Reynaud was
looking on the bright side.
"It
was a moral victory for us," said Reynaud.
"Considering our program is realistically
three years old. We have a lot of young
players. I had five freshmen in there at
one time and you just don't do that. All
these programs [in the Big West] have been
here a long time. Marine Cano has been at
UCI for 10 years and we were competing with
them. We tied them last year and we lost
this year in overtime, but we were right
there with them."
The
49ers will finish the season this weekend
on the road against Fullerton Friday and
UC Riverside Sunday.
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