After losing its season opener to Santa Clara last week, the San Jose State women's soccer team tied with University of California, Santa Barbara in the team’s home opener at the Spartans Soccer Complex on Sunday.
The Spartans (0-1-1) scored early against the Gauchos (1-0-1) in Sunday's contest, but couldn’t drive any more goals with 15 total shots and 4 shots on goal.
Junior forward Bella Flocchini scored her first goal of the season and only Spartan goal in the 7th minute giving them an early 1-0 lead.
“Honestly before coming into the game I was like ‘I want to score a goal,’” Flocchini said. “The goalie kind of kicked it right to me and I was fortunate enough to be right there and I looked up and saw that she was kind of out and I just hit it.”
The SJSU offense had 4 corner kicks.
“I was kind of a little bit disappointed and upset because we did have the lead and I feel like we should have won this game so the tie wasn’t as rewarding as I wanted it to be,” Flocchini said.
The Spartans had six shots in the first half, matching their shot total for the entire opening game.
Spartans head coach Tina Estrada said the team's game plan was to press the Gaucho’s defense early on.
“Ideally we want to generate a little bit more. We want to win the ball higher up on the field to have more opportunities closer to the goal,” Estrada said. “I’m happy with the growth that our team experienced even from some of the mistakes that we made.”
The Gauchos scored a goal in the 25th minute, tying it up 1-1.
The last opportunity for the Spartans to take the lead came in the 85th minute when junior midfielder Kayla Fortenberry had her shot in the center of the net saved.
Estrada said the match was a step in the right direction.
“To start a season you just try and get all of the defending right and on the ball that’s where you kind of see teams get better [and] get better every single game and generate tactics for them,” Estrada said.
The Gauchos would make a push of their own late in the final minute of the game, but were stopped by the Spartans defense as they couldn’t get a shot off.
Sophomore goalkeeper Bente Pernot would record 6 saves during Sunday’s game increasing her season total to 18.
“During those drives I try to get the team to delay it as much as possible so we can get numbers behind the ball and keep them at bay as long as possible and keep them to the sides of the field instead of in the middle,” Pernot said.
Pernot said the amount of saves she has on the season ultimately doesn’t matter to her as long as the Spartans come away with a win.
“For me it’s not about saves or anything, it’s just about the score at the end,” Pernot said. “So I’m just trying to keep the next score as a win.
Pernot also said she knew the Gauchos wanted to play a fast-paced game,
and wanted to prevent the left and right wingers from getting a chance to score.
The Spartans will search for their first win this season as they travel to the East Coast to face Northeastern at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday at Parsons Field in Brookline.
