UCSD Women Face Must-Win Home Date Thursday

October 29, 2014

 

THE SCHEDULE
Match 17 - Senior Night
vs. Cal State Dominguez Hills (2-14-1, 2-8 CCAA)
Thursday, Oct. 30 • 7 p.m.
Triton Soccer Stadium • La Jolla
Live Stats

Match 18 - CCAA Championship First Round
vs. TBD
Sunday, Nov. 2 • TBA
TBD • TBD

TRITONS NEED TO WIN THURSDAY ON SENIOR NIGHT TO CLINCH POSTSEASON RETURN
The UC San Diego women's soccer team concludes the 2014 regular season at home against California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) rival Cal State Dominguez Hills this Thursday, Oct. 30. Kickoff at Triton Soccer Stadium on Senior Night is slated for 7 p.m. The Tritons (8-5-3, 5-3-2 CCAA) sit in sixth place in the 12-team league standings, one point ahead of 24th-ranked reigning CCAA champion Cal State Stanislaus, and would clinch a return to the CCAA Championship after a one-year hiatus with a win Thursday. As record eight-time CCAA tournament champions, the Tritons would hit the road for a first-round game this Sunday, Nov. 2. If they don't beat CSUDH, they would have to equal or better Stanislaus' result at home against Cal State East Bay (7 p.m.), in order to extend their season. The match will have live stats, and will be preceded by the men's game at 4:30 p.m. All regular-season matches at Triton Soccer Stadium are free to attend. UCSD is an even 3-3-1 at home in 2014.

TRITONS ROCK HUNGER
The Triton Athletes' Council (TAC) is joining with other campus organizations to collect canned goods and other non-perishable food items this week. Items collected will be donated to the San Diego Food Bank. Red barrels will be located at Triton Soccer Stadium during Thursday's doubleheader, as well as the main RIMAC and upstairs Intercollegiate Athletics lobbies, and all fans are invited to join in the Tritons Rock Hunger effort.

FREE PIZZA!
In between games of Thursday's Senior Night doubleheader at Triton Soccer Stadium, there will be free pizza for UCSD students courtesy of UCSD Athletics corporate sponsor Papa John's Pizza.

FREE POSTERS, TOO
Free posters featuring both the UCSD women's and men's soccer teams will be available throughout the doubleheader at Triton Soccer Stadium this Thursday, Oct. 30, against Cal State Dominguez Hills. The posters are courtesy of Pepsi and UCSD Dining Services. The women's match kicks off at 7 p.m., with the men right before at 4:30 p.m.

SENIOR NIGHT
This Thursday is Senior Night, and five Tritons will be recognized prior to the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff time. Those five are Cassie CallahanKylie HillKiley LeshinIzzy Pozurama and Michelle Yasutake.

A LOOK BACK AT LAST WEEK
UCSD completed an incredible four-game road swing last weekend with a pair of 1-0 triumphs. The Tritons thus went 3-0-1 without coneding a single goal in 380 minutes of play during a four-match stretch away from home. They first took down then-15th-ranked Sonoma State for the Seawolves' first home loss of 2014 on Friday afternoon. Izzy Pozurama notched the winner in the 83rd minute off a feed from Maile Nilsson (San Diego/The Preuss School UCSD). Pozurama snagged the decider on Sunday as well at Humboldt State, this time in the 57th minute from an Aimee Ellis cross. Kelcie Brodsky made six and four saves, respectively, and picked up two more individual clean sheets to give her four straight, five on the year and 19 for her career.

POSTSEASON PICTURE
UCSD heads into its regular-season finale Thursday night facing a pretty clear postseason picture. Alone in sixth in the 12-team league standings with 17 points, the Tritons control their own fate. A win Thursday puts them back in the CCAA Championship, an event they have won a record eight times. A tie or a loss, and they will need to rely on having produced a result equal or better than what seventh-place reigining league champion Cal State Stanislaus winds up with at home against Cal State East Bay. That match also begins at 7 p.m. The Warriors are one point out of a top-six CCAA Championship spot in seventh, but would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Tritons. Follow all the action from around the CCAA Thursday through the live scoreboard.

POZURAMA CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Izzy Pozurama scored both UCSD goals last weekend that netted her side six giant points on the road, and Tuesday earned CCAA Player of the Week distinction. It was the first weekly award for a Triton in 2014, and the second selection of Pozurama's career. The fifth-year senior leads UCSD with five goals, four of them now game-winners. She has 19 goals for her career, with nine deciders.

LENGTHY BIT OF SHUTOUT SOCCER
UCSD did not allow a goal during its recently-concluded four-match road swing, over 380 minutes. Going back to the first half of the Tritons' 5-1 home victory over Cal State East Bay on Oct. 10, they have not allowed an opponent to score in 459:13. This marks the longest shutout stretch of junior goalkeeper Kelcie Brodsky's career, and the longest for UCSD since a run of 575:26 during the national runner-up 2010 campaign.

TALK ABOUT A STRETCH RUN
With their backs against the wall the entire time, UCSD has put together quite the stretch run to put itself in control of its own postseason destiny. Since the Tritons trailed Cal State Stanislaus 3-0 at home on Oct. 10, they have outscored opponents 10-2 and gone an unbeaten 4-0-1 following that 4-2 loss to the Warriors.

CALLAHAN CONTINUES TO LEAD IN FINAL COLLEGE CAMPAIGN
All-American central midfielder Cassie Callahan notched her 20th career goal to cap the scoring in a 3-0 win at Saint Martin's on Sept. 6. She has since tallied three more to give her 23 for her career, with no fewer than 11 of those strikes, including two this season, coming off of headers. Callahan's most important strikes in 2014 have been her 80th-minute volley to hand No. 8 Cal State San Bernardino its first loss on Oct. 3 in La Jolla, and most recently, an 84th-minute penalty kick in another 1-0 triumph at Cal State Monterey Bay on Oct. 17. The graduate of Coronado High School led UCSD in goals, assists, total points, shots and shots on goal in each of the past two seasons. She is currently tied with Jordyn McNutt in second on UCSD's goal chart. Callahan and fellow senior Izzy Pozurama are second-year captains in 2014.

GREAT COLLEGIATE INTRODUCTION FOR LOCAL ROOKIE
Jordyn McNutt, a San Diego native and true freshman out of nearby University City High School, has made a big impression in her first year of college soccer. From her position as a wing midfielder, she paces UCSD with four goals (tied second), seven assists and 15 points. Her assist total ties her for first in the CCAA, with one helper coming on Cassie Callahan's late winner against No. 8 CSUSB on Oct. 3. McNutt earlier provided a pair of two-assist efforts against Saint Martin's and Azusa Pacific, setting up both goals in the latter contest, a come-from-behind 2-1 triumph in double overtime. She has appeared in 15 of 16 matches with 14 starts, having been forced to miss the league opener at Cal State L.A. on Sept. 26 through injury. Three of McNutt's assists have come on corner kicks.

BRODSKY LEADS CCAA IN SAVES
Junior Triton goalkeeper Kelcie Brodsky continues to lead the CCAA in saves, now with 75. Her 13 stops in a 1-1 home draw with Cal State L.A. on Sept. 22 marked a new UCSD record for the NCAA Division II era (since 2000). It fell just one shy of matching the school mark of 14 set by Jennelle Welling in 1991 against Cal State Dominguez Hills. The 31 shots Brodsky faced that evening, is believed to be a new program record for a UCSD opponent. The Agoura Hills product has started all 16 matches in 2014. She is third in the CCAA in save percentage (.824) and tied for sixth with five shutouts.

TRITON NOTES
UCSD moved into the NCAA's official West Region poll in the 10th position Wednesday in its second installment, with the top six in the final edition making the NCAA Championship field ... Three of the Tritons' four goals in a 4-2 win at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Sept. 19 came on headers ... UCSD was picked to finish fifth by league head coaches in the CCAA preseason coaches' poll, garnering two of the 12 first-place votes ... The 2014 senior class is made up of Cassie CallahanKylie HillKiley LeshinIzzy Pozurama and Michelle Yasutake ... Opposite those five seniors and 18 total returners on the 27-player 2014 UCSD roster are nine newcomers ... Eight players are from San Diego, in Cassie Callahan (Coronado/Coronado HS), Maile Nilsson (San Diego/The Preuss School UCSD),Maxia Espino (Chula Vista/Hilltop HS), Devon Roncoroni (San Diego/Bonita Vista HS), and newcomers Jordyn McNutt (San Diego/University City HS), Katie O'Laughlin (Carlsbad/Pacific Ridge School), Anna Nilsson (San Diego/The Preuss School UCSD) and Taylor Ramos (San Diego/Coronado HS) ... Anna is the younger sister of Maile ... Another newcomer, redshirt sophomore midfielder Meghan Berry, calls Austin, Texas, home, but attended San Diego Miramar College the past two years after graduating from Mt. Carmel High School.

HEAD COACH BRIAN McMANUS
Brian McManus is in his 28th season in charge of the UCSD women's soccer program. With a career record of 449-78-50, he has achieved the second-most wins (one behind Gabe Mejail of Merrimack College) in NCAA Division II women's soccer history. McManus' career winning percentage heading into 2014 of .828, ranks among the top 10 in college women's soccer annals, both overall (No. 9) and Division II only (No. 4). He is fifth among all divisions in wins. McManus has directed UCSD to seven national championships and a record eight CCAA banners, with the Tritons advancing to the national semifinals a remarkable 15 times in his 27 years. Under his guidance, UCSD has qualified for the NCAA tournament all 13 seasons during the Division III days, and all but two of 14 years (2004, 2013) since the move up to Division II. Last season marked the first time McManus' Tritons missed a CCAA Championship, having qualified for 13 straight after joining the conference.

ABOUT THE TOROS
Cal State Dominguez Hills is 2-14-1 overall and 2-8 in the CCAA. The Toros have lost three straight, all in shutout fashion. They suffered a pair of 2-0 defeats at Cal State East Bay and Cal State Stanislaus last weekend. CSUDH has not scored over its last 306:07. The Toros are 1-4 outside of Carson in 2014. Aileen Nasypany is in her first season in charge.

SERIES HISTORY
UCSD leads the all-time series, 23-17-5. The Tritons won this year's earlier match-up, 4-2, in Carson on Sept. 19, behind four different goal-scorers. That match did not count against conference records. The teams split their two meetings in 2013, with each winning on the road. The lone goal in a 1-0 Triton victory in Carson on Sept. 13 came from a 61st-minute Cassie Callahan penalty kick. The Toros won 2-0 in La Jolla on Oct. 18. UCSD was unbeaten over its previous nine (6-0-3) against the Toros since a 2-1 overtime loss in La Jolla in the 2009 regular-season finale.

NEW YEAR, NEW FORMAT IN CCAA
The CCAA has made changes to its regular-season and tournament formats in men's and women's soccer for the 2014 season. The six-team, two-division alignment is no more, now with just one 12-team league table. Rather than a 16-game regular-season schedule with two matches against divisional opponents and one against out-of-division foes, each team faces one another once, for a total of 11 CCAA contests. The top six teams in the final standings advance to the CCAA Championship, up from four in prior years. The first- and second-place finishers get first-round byes, with those two games held at campus sites of the higher seeds. The venue for the 2014 CCAA Championship semifinals and final has been announced as Warrior Stadium on the campus of Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock for the second year in a row and the fifth time in the last six years. The winner on the women's side will once again gain automatic entry into the NCAA Championship.

GEAR HERE
UCSD Athletics has partnered with Advanced-Online to provide a web-based, on-demand option for UCSD apparel and merchandise. Fans have access to over 600 products that can be processed and shipped within 24 hours. Visit the site at UCSDTritonsGear.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA (#TritonsRising)
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UP NEXT
If UCSD wins on Thursday night, the Tritons will play on the road in the CCAA Championship first round this Sunday, Nov. 2. The site and time are to be determined. In the event of a tie or loss, UCSD's fate will depend on Thursday night's match-up in Turlock between Cal State Stanislaus and Cal State East Bay.

#TritonsRising

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