SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Continuing its spring season, Santa Clara women's soccer fell to the Bay Area Breeze 3-2 on April 20 and beat the Sacramento Storm for the second time during the spring by a final of 6-0 on April 28. The Broncos are 3-1 this spring with one game remaining.
Santa Clara will travel to Stanford to take on the Cardinal on Fri., May 3 at 5 p.m.
Playing in the Team Breezy Collegiate Cup, the Broncos were unable to mount a comeback vs. the Breeze. After falling behind 3-0 in the first half, Santa Clara stormed back with two goals in the second half but couldn't even the score.
Aly Birgel and Alyssa Kleiner both scored off of corner kicks for the Broncos. One of Santa Clara's goals in the spring was to work on scoring off of dead balls.
"The spring allows us to work on areas of weakness," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "One of our main goals this year was to work on scoring off of dead ball opportunities. I was very glad to see us score two goals off of corner kicks. This spring we have scored more off of dead balls than we did during the entire fall season."
The Team Breezy Collegiate Cup is a charity event benefiting the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). The Breeze, Santa Clara, Cal and Stanford played in the tournament. To read Breezy's inspiring story, click here.
"Our main goal was to raise money for Team Breezy," said Smith. "It was a successful day for us in spite of our loss. Sometimes a loss can help expose some weak areas that you need to improve upon. That game did that but our opponent played very well. The team came back furiously and had a number of chances to tie the game but we just didn't put those chances in. We have to be able to finish those chances."
The Broncos took down the Storm 6-0 in a very good game for Santa Clara.
"We played very well vs. the Sacramento Storm who has a lot of talented players," continued Smith. "Our finishing was very good on that day and we felt very good about how we played in that game. Now we're looking forward to our final game of the season at Stanford. Annually this is our last spring game and Stanford is always a wonderful test for us.. The team is ready for this match and looking forward to it just like I'm sure Stanford is. It will be a nice gauge for where we are at the end of our spring season and hopefully things come together for us and the team plays well."