Women's soccer finishes season with loss, tie

Soccer • Sophomore Natalie Messina fights off a Cal State Fullerton defender during Friday's 3-0 loss at George Allen Field. Jon Cook/Online Forty-Niner

 

By Claire Howie
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

The women's soccer team finished its season with a 3-0 loss to CS Fullerton and a 0-0 hard-fought tie against UC Riverside last weekend at George Allen Field.

First place CS Fullerton (10-7-1, 6-1-1 Big West) smashed the 49ers' chance at back-to-back .500 seasons with a 3-0 win over The Beach.

The Titan frontline proved to be one of the strongest the 49ers' defense has faced all season.

Fullerton found the back of the net just 2:28 into the first half as junior Erika Pryor scored an unassisted skip shot from 35-yards out.

Fullerton continued to test the LBSU defense, but as was the case all season, the 49ers played strong and physical defense to keep the Titan shot count down to just three for the remainder of the half.

Seventeen minutes into the second half, Erin Shelton scored to put the Titans up by two. Barely a minute later, Shelton passed off to Kandace Wilson who gave Fullerton the comfortable 3-0 lead and ensured the team's third-shared Big West title since 1996.

A referee's ill-timed whistle cost The Beach a win in their season finale.

The 49ers played their last game of the season Sunday at George Allen Field against UC Riverside. The Big West match up ended in a deadlocked tie with a final score of 0-0.

"We won that game in my mind," Ingrassia said. "We brought it today. Played with a lot of heart, a lot of emotion, a lot of energy. We scored the winning goal and then for the ref to blow the whistle, I know he didn't do it on purpose, but we should have had the win."

The Beach out shot Riverside 20-13 for the contest. Seven of the 20 shots were on goal, six of those seven came after Natalie Messina collided with UCR goalkeeper, Tawny Poggio in the 47th minute.

"We knew we were either going to come out with a victory or a tie, we were not going to walk off the field with a loss," 49ers' senior Kristin Travis said.

Long Beach State ended the season 6-9-3 and 1-6-2 in conference, a record good enough to finish eighth in the Big West.

Sunday's match against UC Riverside was the last for three four-year starters, forward Kristin Travis, midfielder Allison Wiegand and defender Shanna Wender.

"I'm going to remember this group for a long time," Ingrassia said. "They freakin' played their butts off. They're a great group of girls."