The UCSB women’s soccer team scored in the sixth minute of play and held a 1-0 lead for the next 70 minutes, but Pacific tied the score in the 76th minute, and that is the way it remained as the teams battled to a 1-1 tie in Big West play on Friday night in Santa Barbara.
At the 5:09 mark sophomore midfielder Jacqui Simon took a free kick from near the top of the box. She pounded the ball through a crowd in front of the goal and found junior forward Genelle Ives who deflected the ball into the left side of the goal, past an off-balanced Amanda McNab. The goal was Ives’s team-leading sixth of the season.
The score remained 1-0 through the remainder of the first half and the first 30 minutes of the second half.
At 75:41, however, Pacific’s Kylee Ah Choy took a free kick from about 30 yards out. Ah Choy hit a rocket that went past a scrambling Ali Cutler to tie the score at 1-1.
There were few other dangerous chances in the defensive, evenly fought game. UCSB outshot Pacific by a 15-13 margin, but each team had four shots on goal. Cutler and McNab each had three saves, each team had six corner kicks, and the Tigers had just one more foul than the Gauchos, 15-14.
With the tie, UCSB is now 9-5-1 overall and 2-1-1 in the Big West Conference. The Gauchos have seven points in the league standings. Pacific is now 8-5-1 overall and 3-1-1 in league, 10 points.
Santa Barbara will travel to Cal Poly on Sunday evening to play the Mustangs, who will enter the game with a perfect 3-0-0 record in league play. On Sunday, Oct. 26, the Gauchos will travel to UC Davis for a noon match. They will return home on Halloween night, Oct. 31, when they host Long Beach State.
