Cal Poly Faces UCSD in La Jolla to Wrap Up Season

Thursday, October 31

La Jolla, CA / Triton Soccer Stadium

7 P.M.

UC San Diego

Photo by: Ayden Gregory

Cal Poly Faces UCSD in La Jolla to Wrap Up Season

10/30/2024 6:30:00 PM | Women's Soccer

LA JOLLA, Calif. — The Cal Poly women’s soccer program wraps up its 2024 season when the Mustangs head to UC San Diego on Thursday for a 7 p.m. showdown with the Tritons.

Thursday’s match at UC San Diego will be the final in the legendary career of head coach Alex Crozier. Serving as the program’s only head coach, Crozier announced back in June that he will retire following the conclusion of the 2024 season after 33 years at the helm. During his tenure, Crozier has led the Mustangs to 10 regular season conference championships and six NCAA Tournament appearances, and he has the most career wins among Big West coaches all-time, both in conference play (129-71-31) and overall (325-233-70).

Following Sunday’s results, Cal Poly (5-10-3, 3-5-1 Big West) was officially eliminated from Big West postseason contention. With a win Thursday against UC San Diego coupled with a UC Irvine loss at UC Riverside, the Mustangs would match the Anteaters with 13 points in the conference table, but don’t own any of the tiebreakers against UCI, falling to them 2-0 in San Luis Obispo four weeks ago.

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Thursday's match will be broadcast live on ESPN+. You can find links to watch the match and follow live stats within this story and on the women’s soccer schedule page. Follow Cal Poly women's soccer on Instagram (@calpolysoccer) and X/Twitter (@CPWomensSoccer) for live updates throughout both matches.

Scouting Report: UC San Diego

Thursday, 7 p.m. at Triton Soccer Stadium
Cal Poly leads the all-time series 2-1-0, but last year the Tritons defeated the Mustangs 1-0 in SLO in the 2023 regular season finale to secure their first win in the series.
The Tritons (2-12-4 overall) are winless in Big West play, sporting an 0-6-3 record in conference. Their last victory this season came on Sept. 12 at San Diego State 1-0.
UCSD has scored the fewest goals among Big West teams this season (13).
UC San Diego ranks 48th in the nation in fouls committed per match (7.44) and leads the Big West.
The last time Cal Poly visited La Jolla in 2022, a 53rd-minute goal from Olivia Ortiz propelled the Mustangs to a 1-0 victory over the Tritons and their first outright Big West regular season championship since 2013 on the final day of the regular season.
The Tritons are led by senior midfielder Courtney Hilliard, who has four goals and four assists this season, and senior forward Raquel Kalpakoff, who has buried five goals.
Sophomore goalkeepers Bella Barretto and Ginny Fronk have split time in net this season. Fronk has started between the pipes in the last five matches for the Tritons, recording a .763 save percentage, a 1.33 goals against average and 45 saves across 11 starts and appearances. She has allowed 14 goals this season.

Last Week on the Pitch

Last Thursday, the Mustangs took down Hawai’i, the No. 1 seed in the Big West tournament, by an impressive 3-1 scoreline, snapping the Rainbow Wahine’s program-record nine-match unbeaten streak and handing UH its only loss so far in conference play (7-1-1). Junior Jessie Halladay led the way, recording a goal and an assist in a match for the third time this season.
In its home finale against UC Davis on Sunday, Cal Poly came up short 2-0 despite outshooting the Aggies 23-10.

Penalty Perfection

Cal Poly has converted all six of its penalty kick opportunities this season, tied with Xavier for the best conversion percentage in Division I this season based on attempts. The six penalty kick attempts are tied for the seventh most in the nation and the six total conversions are tied for the second most in the country. Jessie Halladay has three two penalty kick goals, while Sophia Moness, Kate Reedy and Annika Smith have each buried one.

Leading the Charge

Junior Jessie Halladay is pacing the Mustangs in points this season (11) with four goals and three assists. Since transferring to Cal Poly from Loyola Marymount in the spring of 2023, Halladay has tallied nine goals and seven assists across 34 appearances and 10 starts as a Mustang. She is a perfect 4-for-4 on penalty kicks in her career and has earned a start in Cal Poly’s last four matches.
The five goals from sophomore Annika Smith are tied for the sixth most in the Big West this season. The Scottsdale, Ariz. native has 21 points (nine goals, three assists) across her two seasons as a Mustang, earning a start in 36 of the 38 matches she has appeared in.
Graduate student Whitney Wiley, who transferred to Cal Poly from New Hampshire prior to the 2023 season, has scored three goals this season. The Vienna, Virginia native has recorded 13 goals and six assists across 70 appearances and 48 starts in her collegiate career.
Freshman Kiki Vostermans has a team-high four assists, tied for the fifth most in the Big West.

Milestone Watch

With a start in Thursday’s season finale, senior center back Emma Brown would tie Wendy Jones for the fourth most career starts in program history (76). She is also one appearance away from moving into a tie with a handful of other players for eighth on Cal Poly’s career appearances list (79).
With 203 career saves, senior goalkeeper Mackenzie Samuel currently ranks sixth all-time in Cal Poly history and is six saves away from tying Coral Hoover (2006-09) for fifth all-time (209). The 2022 Big West Goalkeeper of the Year and three-time All-Big West selection recorded her 19th career clean sheet two weeks ago at CSUN and is one shutout away from matching Natalia Garcia (1996-98, 2000) and Greta Shirdon (2000-03) for third most in program history (20). Samuel has made 60 appearances and 59 starts across her career, which both rank fourth all-time among Mustang goalkeepers.

Building Through the Backline

Cal Poly has relied heavily on its experience-laden backline this season, as the team brings back three of its four starters from a year ago — center backs Aynsley Conner and Emma Brown and outside back Camryn Penn.
Between the three of them, the trio boasts 191 appearances and 183 starts across their Cal Poly careers.
Conner leads the team in minutes this season (1,595) and has played all 90 minutes in 16 of 18 matches and 10 straight.
Brown and Conner are two of the Mustangs’ three captains this season, along with senior McKenna Carbon.

Freshman Firsts

Seven Mustangs have made their collegiate debut so far this season — redshirt freshman Ali Evans and Courtney Wagner, and freshmen Ashley Brewer, Avery Chaney, Lilly Cole, Lauren Collier and Kiki Vostermans.
Midfielder Kiki Vostermans has started in 10 matches this season.
Lilly Cole, the younger sister of junior midfielder Brennan Cole, has started in five matches for the Mustangs at outside back.
In total, 30 players have appeared in a match for the Mustangs this season.

Historic Second Half on Senior Day

In a 5-1 Senior Day victory over Nevada on Sept. 22, Cal Poly scored five goals in the second half in a span of 32:49 minutes of game time, marking the first time since Sept. 23, 2000, that the Mustangs scored five goals in a half. In a 7-0 victory over Butler at the Montana Invitational in 2000, the Mustangs scored five second half goals in a span of 24:38.

The Most Returners in the Nation

Experience is something the Mustangs aren't lacking this fall. Cal Poly returns 26 letterwinners, 10 starters and 90 percent of its goal production from its 2023 team that advanced to the program’s ninth Big West Championship match, tied for the most all-time in conference history.
In total, the Mustangs boast 30 returners, the most of any team in Division I this season.
Cal Poly returns all seven of its All-Big West honorees from a year ago — senior defender Emma Brown, senior forward Kate Reedy, senior goalkeeper Mackenzie Samuel, junior defender Camryn Penn, redshirt sophomore midfielder Sophia Minnite, sophomore forward Annika Smith and sophomore midfielder Sophia Moness.
Cal Poly has 38 players on the team this season with only eight newcomers, all freshmen.

Brown, Reedy Receive Preseason Praise

Seniors Kate Reedy and Emma Brown both earned a spot on the 11-player All-Big West Preseason Coaches Team, marking the first time since 2022 the program has had multiple players secure preseason honors.
For Reedy, this is her first time receiving All-Big West preseason accolades. Last year, the All-Big West Second Team honoree led the entire conference in game-winning goals (three), tied for the team lead in goals (five) and was second on the team in points (13).
Reedy, who has started in Cal Poly's last 10 matches, scored her first goal of the season in a 2-1 home defeat to LMU on Sept. 5 and has four this year, the second most on the team. She has 13 goals and four assists across her Cal Poly career.
Brown grabbed an All-Big West Preseason selection for the second straight season. The center back was also one of 26 players in Division I tabbed as a “Defender to Watch” by the United Soccer Coaches ahead of the 2024 season. Brown is the reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Year and started in all 21 matches for the Mustangs a year ago, playing every minute in 19 of them and racking up 1,837 total minutes on the pitch, the most on the team among field players.
This season, Brown has started in all 18 matches for the Mustangs and played all 90 minutes in 16 of them. Entering Thursday's match against UC San Diego, Brown has started in 62 consecutive matches for the Mustangs and 75 of the 78 she has appeared in during her Cal Poly career, racking up over 6,645 minutes on the pitch without receiving a card.
Brown has played every minute in 66 matches during her Mustang career.

The Mustangs' Returning Offensive Firepower

Cal Poly’s top seven point-getters from a year ago are all back this season, including Jessie Halladay who led the team in points with five goals and four assists.
In 2023, the Mustangs set a program record for players to record a point in a season (21) and matched a 27-year-old program record for goal scorers in a season (15).

One Last Ride for Coach Crozier

Head coach Alex Crozier announced back in June that he will retire at the end of the 2024 season after 33 years at the helm.
The only head coach in the history of the Cal Poly women’s soccer program, Crozier has been named the Big West Coach of the Year a record six times and enters the 2024 season ranked 23rd nationally in career victories among active Division I head coaches and No. 42 all-time with a 321-223-67 overall record.
Crozier has led the Mustangs to 10 regular season conference championships, six NCAA Tournament appearances and three Big West Tournament titles, and he has the most career victories among Big West coaches all-time, both in conference play (127-66-30) and overall.
He is one of the longest active tenured women’s soccer head coaches in all of Division I and has coached long enough to mentor the daughters of some of his former players, including Aynsley Conner, who is the daughter of Cathie Cardoza Conner, a member of the program's inaugural team in 1992.

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