The Big West Conference’s leading scorer senior forward Mackenzie Pridham was held to one shot against UC Santa Barbara in a 2-0 loss on Saturday night.
Stephan Teodosescu
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The Cal Poly men’s soccer team closed out the 2013 regular season with a 2-0 loss to rival UC Santa Barbara in front of 12,805 fans at Harder Stadium on Saturday night.
The No. 12 Gauchos scored the game-winner in the 61st minute when senior forward Goffin Boyoko headed home a goal inside the right post off a corner kick.
UC Santa Barbara got its second goal of the night from sophomore forward Charlie Miller as he slotted one past Cal Poly goalkeeper Wade Hamilton in the 86th minute.
The two-goal margin of victory marked the second time in the past 14 matchups a game between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara wasn’t decided by a single goal or drawn. It was also the eighth-largest regular season attendance figure in NCAA history.
The Mustangs managed seven total shots, two of which were on goal, while Hamilton was forced to make six saves on the night. Big West goals leader and Cal Poly forward Mackenzie Pridham was held to a single shot against the Gauchos, a seventh-minute strike that hit the post.
“We played a very good first half at Santa Barbara,” head coach Paul Holocher said. “But in the second half, we didn’t penetrate enough, and we didn’t get behind them enough.”
With the loss, Cal Poly was relegated to the No. 3 seed in the Big West North Division standings as the Mustangs finished the conference portion of their schedule with 11 points. Cal Poly will take on No. 20 Cal State Northridge, the No. 2 seed from the South, in Tuesday’s opening round of the Big West tournament. The winner of that match will advance to face UC Santa Barbara on Friday.
“I just got to give everything I have,” senior midfielder Mike Hocker said of the elimination match on Tuesday. “You’re literally playing like it’s your last game, so you got to put everything on the line.
Women’s basketball starts off 0-2
The Cal Poly women’s basketball team dropped both games of its season-opening slate in the Maggie Dixon Classic hosted by DePaul this past weekend.
Junior guard Ariana Elegado scored 20 points and senior guard Jonae Ervin added 19 in an 84-69 opening loss to Duquesne on Friday. The Mustangs committed 20 turnovers and shot 34.4 percent from the field, while Duquesne shot at a 56.4 percent clip to pull away.
The Mustangs bounced back the next night against Harvard as Ervin led the way with 23 points, but the Crimson used a 14-0 run late in the game to beat Cal Poly 83-76. Senior center Molly Schlemer had 10 rebounds to go along with her 21 points.
“It’s a different squad and we’re learning who’s going to get the shots at the end of the game, and I thought we took a few too many 3’s when we needed to pound the ball inside to Molly Schlemer,” head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “We’re going against good competition, and both those teams had great experience that they returned on the court and were better at this stage. Give us a month or two and I’d love to have a rematch of either of those games because I think we’re going to be tough down the road.”
Ervin was named to the all-tournament team after she averaged 21 points, four rebounds and four-and-a-half steals in the first two games of the season.
“On both sides of the ball, I really thought that’s the area where she had the same type of form that she had a couple of years ago,” Mimnaugh said. “Last year was a down year for her, she was certainly all-conference material, but because she was coming off her ACL (tear). She wasn’t as explosive as she is right now. She’s playing some really intelligent basketball.”
Next, the Mustangs head north to face No. 3 Stanford on Friday.
Wrestling opens season with 25-6 win over CSU Bakersfield
Led by Sean Dougherty’s major decision, the youthful Cal Poly wrestling team dominated Cal State Bakersfield in a season-opening match in Bakersfield on Thursday.
In addition to Dougherty, Dominic Kastl, Britain Longmire, Spencer Empey, Blake Kastl, Colt Shorts and Maxamillian Schneider earned decisions to lead the Mustangs to victory. Cal Poly didn’t win a dual meet against a Division I school last season and lost twice to the Roadrunners en route to a 2-11 dual record in 2012-13.
Cal Poly returns to action on Nov. 17 in the Roadrunner Open in Fresno.
Swimming and Diving wins Mustang Invitational
The Cal Poly women’s swimming and diving team outpaced the rest of the field scoring 1,922 points in the Mustang Invitational at the Anderson Aquatic Center this past weekend.
Bolstered by senior Sami McIntyre’s victory in the 3-meter diving competition, Cal Poly beat Pepperdine (1,073 points) and Azusa Pacific (1,015 points) in the two-day meet.
Competing on an exhibition basis, the men’s team scored 670 points.
The Mustangs will next compete at the Arena Invitational hosted by East Los Angeles City College on Nov. 21-23.