October 25, 2007

Soccer: 49ers battling for the top spot
LBSU facing UC Irvine in road finale tonight.
By Dave Werstine, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - The Long Beach State women's soccer team's road to back-to-back Big West Conference championships just doesn't seem to get any easier.

After two big games last week - splitting with a loss to CS Fullerton and a win over UC Riverside to remain in first place - the 49ers travel to UC Irvine for another pivotal game, their final road match of the season, tonight at 7.

"You play every team just once, so every game is huge," 49ers coach Mauricio Ingrassia said.

For the sake of argument, the BWC is a down to four-team race for the title among LBSU, Fullerton, UCI and Cal Poly.

LBSU (11-5-0, 4-1-0) is tied for first place with Fullerton (4-2-0) atop the conference standings with 12 points, but the Anteaters (9-5-1, 3-1-0) are right there with Cal Poly, just three points behind with a game in hand. Also, UCI and Cal Poly have only one conference loss so far, just like the 49ers.

A victory would be paramount for the 49ers' hopes of repeating as champs, leaving them with home matches next weekend against Cal Poly, a possible showdown for the BWC title on Nov. 2, and UC Santa Barbara to close out the regular season.

The top four teams qualify for the BWC Tournament, with the regular-season champion hosting the event and the tournament winner garnering a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

"We've got three championship games and Irvine is up next," Ingrassia said. "But it's also a championship game for them, too. It'll be a good test for both teams."

While the 49ers were picked to repeat as champs in the BWC preseason poll, UCI was picked to finish last. Instead, under new head coach Scott Juniper, the Anteaters have been the surprise of the conference after going winless in the BWC and 3-13-1 overall a year ago.

UCI, which has lost four of its five matches by one goal, have a balanced scoring attack as three players - Katie Berrini, Frankee Kelly and Tanya Taylor - have tallied five goals each, and has the conference's top goalkeeper, Danielle de Seriere, who leads the BWC with a 0.67 GAA.