IRVINE – UC Santa Barbara went 1-1 on the final day of the UC Irvine Invitational in edging out UCSD 8-7, while losing to Pacific 8-4. The Gauchos are now 8-10 on the season and finished 1-3 in the tournament.
Taylor Shore scored a team-high five goals on the day, while Brenna Thomas found the back of the net twice. Defensively, Mackenzie Brokaw tallied 15 saves between the two contests.
UCSB goes back to action next weekend when it comes back home to Campus Pool with two matchups on Sunday, March 1. The first will be a rematch against UC San Diego at 9:30 a.m. and face CSU Bakersfield in a late afternoon game at 4:00 p.m.
UC SAN DIEGO
No. 17 UC Santa Barbara (8-9) hung on for the 8-7 win against No. 11 UC San Diego (6-11) top open the final day of the UC Irvine Invitational. The victory snapped the Gauchos’ three-game losing streak.
Taylor Shore led the Gauchos in scoring with three goals, while Brenna Thomas, Sophie Trabucco, Betsy Hendrix, Jenna Solberg and Jade Wentz Fitzgerald scored one goal each. Mackenzie Brokaw made eight saves on the defensive end for UCSB.
Neither team distanced themselves in the first as the score was deadlocked at 2-2 after one. In the second quarter, the Gauchos found their stride scoring three goals and took a 5-4 lead into the break.
UCSB kept the pressure on scoring twice in the third, while holding the Tritons to one goal. The two-goal lead in the fourth proved to be pivotal, as the Gauchos were outscored 2-1 in the fourth and hung on for the one-point victory.
Despite 12 penalties by UCSB, the Gauchos found a way to win thanks to stellar play by Brokaw at the net, consistent scoring, and a slew of steals throughout the match.
PACIFIC
UCSB (8-10) finished their round of play on Sunday afternoon with an 8-4 loss to the University of Pacific despite taking a total of 34 shots as a team.
Junior Samantha Murphy and redshirt sophomore Miranda Schrader had a combined twelve shots (six apiece) but were only able to produce one goal from Murphy. Taylor Shore, who has started to become an offensive threat to opponents, had a pair and Brenna Thomas had the fourth Gaucho goal in the game.
Defensively, junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Brokaw had seven saves and a steal throughout the match. Another set of steals by Shore and few turnovers kept the Gauchos close with Pacific.
The match opened with the highest scoring quarter of the match. The Gauchos were able to get the ball past Tigers goalkeeper Michele Relton twice, but Pacific did one better with a hat trick. The following quarter, the Tigers added another goal to enter halftime up 4-2 on UCSB.
The second half saw the continued shootout by the Gauchos as they continued to attack the Tigers’ defense. Unfortunately they were only able to come up with a goal in each quarter, while Pacific scored another three past Brokaw. Any rally the Gauchos had ended as time expired and took the tough loss to Pacific by a final score of 8-4.
