On Oct. 31, Cal Poly Women’s Soccer had a decisive 3-1 victory over Sacramento State to clinch the No. 5 seed in the Big West Championship tournament.
Forward Isis Salazar-Ortega led the charge against the Hornets with three goals, completing the program’s ninth hat trick.
The first came in the 22nd minute when Salazar-Ortega buried the ball in the back of the net with an assist from freshman forward Kate Nunes.
Less than three minutes later, Nunes helped Salazar-Ortega find the net again to expand the Mustangs’ lead to 2-0.
In the second half, Salazar-Ortega delivered the nail in the Hornets’ coffin, with her third goal of the match in the 63rd minute.
All three goals came from Nunes’s assists.
“Before the game we’d been working a lot on building connections, especially with our lines of players… to hopefully translate that to the field,” Nunes said.
Nunes said that after the second goal, she looked to set up her teammate for the hat trick.
This was the ninth hat trick in program history, and Salazar-Ortega became the seventh player to do it.
“It’s familiar. I’ve scored multiple hat tricks. It just hadn’t been in a while,” she said. “I was definitely hungry for that third [goal].”
Her last goal this season was on Sept. 10 against Pacific.
The Hornets responded with one goal in the last seven minutes of the game against goalkeeper Alyssa Szarlacki, who came in in the 83rd minute.
Goalkeeper Shannon Porubski played the majority of the match and kept the Hornets to zero goals while recording three saves.
Now, the Mustangs turn their attention to the playoffs as they compete for a repeat title in the Big West Championship Tournament.
Saturday’s game was a must-win for the defending champions if they wanted a chance to finish in the top six Big West teams advancing to the tournament.
Injuries and the loss of veteran players plagued Cal Poly and made the road to the tournament harder this season.
“I feel like this achievement of making this Big West tournament is almost as hard as it was to win the tournament last year,” Head Coach Bernardo Silva said. “This next phase of the postseason is about surviving and advancing.”
The Mustangs face off against California Baptist on Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at CBU Soccer Stadium in the first round of the tournament.