Santa Clara opened with wins over Top 25 teams — both from the Pac-12 — for the first time since 1993 when it defeated No. 8 USC, 3-2, and No. 15 California, 1-0. Both games were decided on goldengoals.
The Broncos had to come back twice to beat USC on Kellie Peay‘s golden goal off a corner kick.
“We’ve been solid on set pieces in training all year and we’rereally excited about what we’ll be able to do on them this season,” Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith said. “They can make a big difference in how far you go in the tournament and that was thedifference in the game tonight.”
Jordan Jesolva‘s goal in the 87th minute off a pass from Jenna Roering had pulled Santa Clara even at 2-2.
MaddieGonzalez set up Janae Gonzalez for the first Bronco goal in the 37th minute. Alex Anthony scored twice for USC.
Roering broke the deadlock against Cal when she scoredthe gamewinner in the 107th minute. She took a pass from from Jesolva just inside midfield and gained control of the ball at the top of the box, taking a touch before finishing just inside the leftpost.
“The challenge in a weekend like this, similar to the NCAA Tournament, is that you play two great teams,” Smith said. “We invested a tremendous amount of energy on Friday night soit’s not easy to do that again two days later. We didn’t do a good job with that in the first half. At halftime, we talked about working harder and investing more energy. Once we did that, the gamewas at least even, if we weren’t the better team.”
— In another WCC-Pac-12 clash, Pepperdine got two goals from freshman Nicole Leggio and a superb effort from senior RyleeBaisden to beat visiting Arizona, 3-1.