Mustangs Fall Short in Battle with Wolverines

Saturday, October 10

San Luis Obispo, CA

6 P.M.

5-5-3, 2-2-1

Utah Valley

7-4-3, 3-0-2

Team	1	2	Final F
Utah Valley	2	0	2
Cal Poly	0	1	1

Isis Salazar-Ortega, Utah Valley, 101026

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Mustangs Fall Short in Battle with Wolverines

10/10/2026 10:48:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Sophomore Kammy MacLennan scored her first collegiate goal early in the second half, but the Cal Poly women’s soccer team fell short to a high-powered Utah Valley side 2-1 on Saturday night at Mustang Memorial Field.

It was a true Big West battle between a pair of evenly-matched teams, but the Wolverines found a way to convert more of their opportunities to walk away with the win in the first conference matchup between the two programs.

“I think the difference in the game today was Utah Valley was more clinical than we were,” head coach Bernardo Silva said after the match. “There was an equal amount of chances created on both sides, they scored two of them, we scored one and that’s the difference in the game. I did think we deserved more out of today, but life isn’t fair, soccer isn’t fair.”

With the defeat, Cal Poly (5-5-3, 2-2-1 Big West) now sits in sixth place in the Big West standings (7 points) with six conference matches left to play. Utah Valley (7-4-3, 3-0-2 BW) is tied for first place with Cal State Fullerton at 11 points.

The Mustangs were on the front foot early in Saturday’s match as junior Isis Salazar-Ortega fired a shot just wide of the left post in the 20th minute, sophomore Kenzie Herzing hit one just over the crossbar a few moments later and Cal Poly’s leading scorer, Miah Thomas, fired a dangerous shot on goal in the 32nd minute following a Utah Valley turnover in front of their net.

Despite the aggressiveness from Cal Poly, the Wolverines were the first ones to strike, sending home a shot from outside the box in the 36th minute. Utah Valley added another just over three minutes later and took a 2-0 advantage into halftime.

MacLennan got the Mustangs right back into the match just 1:15 into the second half, finding a ball played forward by Thomas, dribbling past a Utah Valley defender and slicing a shot with her right foot into the back of the net to cut the Wolverines’ lead in half. It was MacLennan’s first career goal and a timely one at that.

With the momentum now in their favor, the Mustangs looked to capitalize and level the match. Salazar-Ortega and junior Lauren Collier both fired some quality shots on goal, but Cal Poly was unable to find another goal and equalize.

Junior goalkeeper Shannon Porubski finished with five saves and Utah Valley outshot Cal Poly 18-11.

“There are several positives that we can take out of today,” Silva said. “I think this loss might be better for us to experience now so that we do learn from it moving forward.”

The Mustangs hit the road for a pair of matches this coming week, traveling to CSUN on Wednesday and Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday. Both matches are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.