10-7, 6-1Big West
UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly Clinches Share of Big West Regular-Season Title with Win at UCSB
10/25/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Two more goals by Elise Krieghoff helped lift the Cal Poly women's soccer team to a 2-1 win at UC Santa Barbara on Friday night at Harder Stadium. The Blue-Green Rivalry victory clinched at least a share of the Big West Conference regular-season championship for the Mustangs.
The Big West's automatic NCAA Tournament berth will be determined at the conference tournament, which will be held Nov. 7 (with the semifinals) and Nov. 10 (the championship final) at Cal State Fullerton. The regular-season Big West title is Cal Poly's first since 2009.
Cal Poly (6-1-0 Big West, 10-7-0 overall), which will visit UC Davis for its regular-season finale at 2 p.m. Oct. 31, now has 18 points to reside alone atop the standings. However, if UC Davis were to win that match, and if UC Irvine (4-2-0, 9-6-0) were to win-out the rest of the way, the Anteaters would also finish with 18 points and, in that scenario, would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker (thanks to a 4-3 win over the Mustangs on Oct. 6) and therefore would be the conference tournament's No. 1 seed.
In Friday's match, Krieghoff tallied the first score in the 50th minute. She took a pass in space from Sara Lancaster about 30 yards out, and then lofted an arcing shot over the head of the goalkeeper that settled into the back-left corner of the net. It was the fifth assist of the year for Lancaster, a junior midfielder.
Soon afterward, in the 53rd minute, Krieghoff struck again, from nearly the same location. After accepting a long pass ahead in stride from Kendra Bonsall, Krieghoff took advantage of a momentarily open net by threading a bouncing shot through the back line.
It was the seventh time this year that the Mustangs have netted more than one goal within a span of just five minutes.
They were the 19th and 20th goals of the season for the sophomore forward from Clovis. Krieghoff came into the week tied for the national lead in goals, and she added to her ongoing single-season school record.
The Gauchos (3-4-0, 9-8-1) scored in the 80th minute when Allie Ariniello rebounded a Madison Beckley shot and bodied it in from the front of the goal.
Alyssa Giannetti made four saves for the Mustangs. The sophomore goalkeeper is now 10-0-0 this year when being spotted a lead first.
Team Stats
Krieghoff, Elise (19)
Assisted By: Lancaster, Sara
13 takes pass from 18 at top of box and
49:23
Krieghoff, Elise (20)
Assisted By: Bonsall, Kendra
Defensive miscommunication. 13 picks up
52:18
Ariniello, Allie (5)
Assisted By: Beckley, Madison
16 rebounds 26 shot and bodies it in fro
79:57
