By After a week-long hiatus, the Long Beach State women’s soccer team will resume conference play this weekend beginning with its shortest road trip of the season at UC Irvine before returning home to host Hawaii.
The 49ers (7-5-1, 1-1-1 Big West) haven’t played since they tied UC Davis last Thursday, their longest inactive stretch all season. The ‘Niners will be on extra rest when they take a short trip to Anteater Stadium on Thursday evening to face conference rival and first-place UC Irvine (8-5-0, 3-1-0).
The Anteaters are looking to extend a three-game winning streak and defend its spot atop the Big West Conference with nine points, which they currently share with Cal Poly and UC Riverside.
“It’s a big match, for sure,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “At this point you don’t look at the table in terms of points. You look at it in terms of losses and ties.”
Big West teams have fared pretty evenly against each other since conference play began two weeks ago. Three teams share the first place spot while the next-best three have each won as many conference games as they have lost.
The ‘Niners will first be up against an Anteaters team that has beaten them in 11 of their last 17 meetings. Each of the past 10 matches have been decided by a shutout.
Hawaii (6-7, 1-3 Big West) currently sits in seventh place in the conference but is led by forward Tiana Fujimoto, who has scored the second-most goals in the Big West with eight.
“Irvine is physical and a good team that’s solid on the ball,” Ingrassia said. “Hawaii has a lot of energy and a lot of good individual play.”
LBSU’s most recent wins have come by way of defense more than offense. Aside from beating UC Santa Barbara on Oct. 6 with two goals, the 49ers’ offense has managed only three goals in five matches over the last four weeks.
The Beach is having no problem compiling its share of shots, having attempted 17 shots against UC Davis in the 1-1 draw last Thursday. But Ingrassia acknowledged that his team has several things to work on in order to manufacture more goals.
“We need to settle into the game as quickly as possible and then go from there,” Ingrassia said, “and string some passes together so that we can get into the flow of the game, and also take care of set pieces.”
Thursday’s match at UC Irvine will start at 7 p.m. and will be the first of LBSU’s Black and Blue rivalry series with the Anteaters.
Sunday’s match at George Allen Field will begin at 6 p.m.
