Oct. 13, 2006
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The No. 3 Santa Clara women's soccer team heads down to Southern California this weekend for a pair of matches against two of the West Coast Conference's sleeper teams in the No. 21 Loyola Marymount Lions and the Pepperdine Waves. The Broncos open up weekend action Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. against the Lions, before heading up Pacific Coast Highway for a 1 p.m. battle against the Waves on Sunday.
Following this weekend's matches, Santa Clara returns home for the annual showdown with WCC arch-rival the Portland Pilots. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. and will be nationally televised on Fox Soccer Channel.
The Broncos last week went undefeated again in play, posting their ninth and tenth shutouts of the season with a 6-0 victory over San Jose State and a 2-0 win over San Diego in the West Coast Conference opener. Lexi Orand scored her first two collegiate goals and notched two assists in the two games, while Meagan Snell added her ninth goal and two assists against the Spartans. Goalkeeper Julie Ryder made her first start of the season against SJSU and made a save as the defense kept the Spartans off the board. Sunday, the Broncos battled the Toreros in the WCC opener, finally breaking through the USD defense in the 78th minute as Brittany Klein scored on a pass from Jordan Angeli. Amanda Poach added her seconed goal of the season and the defense held its own in recording its 10th shutout of the season with the 2-0 victory to close out the homestand.
The Lions (7-1-3) will host the Broncos, who are the West Coast Conference division leaders. The Broncos versus LMU are 12-2-0, outscoring them 34-3. The Lions, who are ranked 21st in the nation, are coming off a scoreless, double-overtime game against Pepperdine at home.
Junior forward Jamie Bell leads the Lions with four goals and nine points, while Stefanie Baduria leads the team in assists with four, and is second in scoring with two goals.
The Broncos will then travel to Malibu to play the Waves (6-4-3), who have just come off a tough game with LMU that resulted in a tie, after two overtime periods. The Broncos are 7-3 against Pepperdine in the last ten years, outscoring the Waves 29-6.