THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Cal Lutheran women's soccer team played the Occidental Tigers under the lights at William Rolland Stadium Wednesday afternoon for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) matchup. This was the first game of a doubleheader as the men's team would take on Pomona-Pitzer in the nightcap. The Regals used a productive first half performance to grab the 2-1 win.
Cal Lutheran dominated play in the midfield and controlled possession for most of the first half.
The Regals got out to an early 1-0 lead when Sam Cornejo showed some great individual play to maneuver into the box and fire a well-placed shot into the bottom left corner of the net to bag her fifth goal of the season.
Kali Youngdahl picked up her eighth goal of the season as she stole the ball from Occidental and placed it brilliantly in the back of the net and doubled the CLU lead.
Occidental started to create many scoring opportunities late in the second half and managed to get back in the game in their attempt to send the game to overtime.
The Tigers won a free kick within striking distance in the 77th minute. Erin Iacullo caught the Regal defense off guard by taking the kick very quickly while the defenders and goalkeeper were scrambling and promptly shot the ball into the center of the net to make the score 2-1.
The Regals managed to hold their lead despite the threatening attacks from Occidental late in the game. Zandra Stewart and Trinity Martinez made some clutch clearances towards the end of the match to clinch the win. The duo was an essential part of a defense that held the Tigers to only five shots with three on goal
Sarah Tadeusiak and Joss Pereda were impressive in the midfield and continually won possession for the Regals in the middle of the field.
Ryley Settles, Olivia Leyva and Youngdahl each tallied one shot on goal and Cornejo contributed two.
Alysa Frazier made two saves between the posts for Cal Lutheran and improved her overall record to 6-0.
Cal Lutheran (11-2-2, 7-1-2 SCIAC) will travel to La Verne, Calif., Saturday to face the Leopards of La Verne at 7 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 2, OC 1
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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Interim Sports Information Director, Jeff Rebello (Student Intern)