October 21, 2007

LBSU still atop of BWC with victory
Women's soccer: Lone goal enough to stop UC Riverside.
Staff reports

LONG BEACH - On a very windy day at George Allen Field, the Long Beach State women's soccer team blew out nemesis UC Riverside even though the scoreboard didn't exactly show it.

The 49ers bounced back exceptionally well from their first Big West Conference loss of the season and dominated the Highlanders all over the field on Sunday afternoon, recording a 1-0 victory to stay atop the standings.

"It was a gutty performance to come back like that," said 49ers coach Mauricio Ingrassia, whose team really stepped up its play after falling to CS Fullerton, 1-0, on Friday. "We were all over them, it just didn't show on the scoreboard."

LBSU was a very different team on Sunday compared to Friday. The 49ers came out strong from the start, played aggressively throughout and got back to their possession game.

The result kept L.B. State (11-5-0, 4-1-0) in first place no matter the outcome of a late Sunday match involving Fullerton, which entered the day tied with the 49ers and Cal Poly with nine points each.

"If we play like that, we are going to be hard to beat," said Ingrassia, who got the UCR monkey off his back with the win. Until Sunday, the 49ers were 0-1-3 against the Highlanders under Ingrassia.

"That's the way we want to play the rest of the season," said midfielder Mariko Strickland, who netted the lone goal in the 24th minute.

Ingrassia made a few adjustments for the match, including midfielder Dana Farquhar getting the first start of her career on the backline. The move gave the 49ers a little more speed and allowed them a little more playmaking out of the back.

But the most important adjustment, according to Ingrassia, was mental.

"The locker room atmosphere was different," he said. "After the loss, people straightened up and listened. I noticed a big difference in their focus. They knew we had to win today."

The players praised the coaching staff on its positive approach after Friday's loss. It helped take off the pressure Sunday.

"(Ingrassia) told us not to worry about the result, just the process," Strickland said. "He said, `If you take care of the process, then the result will take care of itself.' "

And it did, as the 49ers dominated everywhere, except the scoreboard.

Offensively, they peppered UC Riverside (8-7-1, 2-3-1) with 17 shots and earned nine corner kicks and several other set plays off free kicks in Highlander territory. Defensively, they smothered UCR, barely giving the Highlanders any time of possession in their zone until late in the game. They allowed just three shots - none on goal - and just two corner kicks.

"(The loss) got us fired up," Strickland said. "Everyone worked their butts off today."

The 49ers had several good scoring chances, but the only one to find the back of the net came off the left foot of Strickland from about 30 yards out in the 24th minute.

Strickland took a short pass from Sahar Haghdan, who arguably had her best game of the year, took a touch, swung left and fired a line-drive shot past diving goalkeeper Brittany Goetz and into the lower-left corner of the net.

It stood up as the game-winner. But the moment was special for Strickland on a personal level, too, with her family in town from Hawaii.

- Dave Werstine

Men's water polo

Jake Kinne's three goals led the way offensively and goalie Steve MacKenzie stopped a season-high 15 saves as No. 6-ranked Long Beach State (14-8) defeated No. 2 ranked Stanford 7-5 in the first of two games at the Campus Pool.

In the second game of the day, LBSU fell to No. 10 UC Davis (17-5), 9-8.

- LBSU Sports Information Office contributed to this report.

49ers 1, UC Riverside 0

Friday: at UC Irvine,

7 p.m.