By The top four women’s soccer teams in the Big West are headed to Long Beach for the weekend, with No. 1 seed Long Beach State hosting the conference tournament at George Allen Field Friday and Sunday.
UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly and LBSU will battle this weekend for the Big West Tournament Championship with the winner receiving an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
UCSB will meet CSF in the first semifinal match at 11 a.m. and LBSU will play Cal Poly after the UCSB-CSF match at approximately 1 p.m.
The conference final, between the two semifinal winners, will be played at George Allen Field at 1 p.m.
No. 1 LBSU (14-4, 5-1-1) vs. No. 4 Cal Poly (9-6-3, 3-1-3)
The two teams met on Oct. 8 in San Luis Obispo, and after 110 minutes the match ended in a scoreless tie.
Both teams were tied in shots for the match with seven through 90 minutes, but in overtime, LBSU goalie Liz Ramos was forced to make a couple big saves to secure the tie, as the Mustangs outshot the 49ers 4-0 in extra time.
Cal Poly head coach Alex Crozier is expecting a much different match when the two teams meet Friday afternoon.
“That match was at home for us and now we have to go on the road to Long Beach,” Crozier said. “They have a lot of good players. We are going to have to play as well as we can to win.”
LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said his entire focus right now is on Cal Poly.
“As soon as I found out we were going to play Cal Poly I started watching the game we played with them,” Ingrassia said. “To us right now, Santa Barbara and Fullerton don’t even exist.”
LBSU is coming off a surprising 3-0 defeat to UC Riverside, which was the 49ers first home and conference loss of the season.
The 49ers were without midfielder Hayley Bolt in the loss, but according to Ingrassia, Bolt is expected to play this weekend.
No. 2 UCSB (7-6-6, 4-2-1) vs. No. 3 CSF (9-7-2, 4-2-1)
UCSB comes into the match as the hottest team in the Big West.
The Gauchos have gone unbeaten in their last seven (5-0-2) and haven’t lost since a 1-0 home defeat to LBSU on Oct. 6.
CSF comes into the tournament as the defending Big West champions, and last year, the Titans were the first Big West team ever to reach the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
UCSB and CSF met in Fullerton on Oct. 13, and UCSB left Orange County with a 4-1 victory.
The Gauchos are led by Chandi Bickford and Genelle Ives, who are tied with the team lead in goals with seven.
CSF, which has battled with injuries this year, will look to two-time Big West Goalie of the Year, Karen Bardsley to keep the ball out of the net Friday.
