A depleted UC Santa Barbara team held Cal State Fullerton scoreless for most of the night, but the Titans scored a goal in the 88th minute to hand the Gauchos a tough Big West defeat on Sunday evening, 1-0.
Nikki McCants scored on a rebound of a Beth Ritter punch-out after a corner kick from the Titans’ Erica Mazeau, breaking a scoreless tie at the 87:35 mark of the game.
The goal was the first allowed by Ritter, who had a career-high 10 saves on the evening. As a team, UCSB had 11. On the flip side, Fullerton’s Lindsay Maricic needed just one save on a shot from Lindsay Gankema, to post the shutout.
Santa Barbara is now 9-7-1 overall and 3-3-0 in the Big West. Fullerton improves to 7-5-4 overall and 2-2-1 in league play.
The Gauchos return home on Friday, Oct. 25 to host Cal Poly in a 7:00 p.m. match.
