SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Heading into the second weekend of West Coast Conference play, Santa Clara women's soccer will travel to local rival San Francisco on Sun., Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. Last week the Broncos fell to No. 11 Pepperdine on the road 2-1 before coming back with a 2-0 win at LMU. Santa Clara is now 8-5-0 on the season and 1-1-0 in conference play.
"In both games last week, we were fairly proud of our performance and statistically there is some evidence to back that up," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "In the Pepperdine game we had more shots on goal than our opponent and sometimes shots on goal is the main thing you want to look at rather than total shots. In the LMU game we had seven shots on goal to their zero shots and anytime you can have zero shots on goal you have a good chance of not giving up a goal. So statistically, we are happy how the weekend went for us. We start looking at results as we get closer to the end of the season, but most of your attention is still focused on performance and stats can tell you about the performance."
With just one game this week, Smith and the Broncos will be able to rest some tired legs in the middle of a long season.
"It's good to have one game a week from time to time," explained Smith. "You don't want to have to many of them because we get into a rhythm of two games a week but in mid season bodies are starting to break down and injuries are starting to pile up. We are certainly going to take advantage of the fact that we can rest our players a little more this week and that we have just the one game we can focus on this weekend."
Santa Clara has outscored opponents 18-15 this season and holds a 145-133 edge in shots with a 68-66 advantage in shots on goal.
Sofia Huerta leads the Broncos with 10 goals and 22 points as well as 51 shots, 29 shots on goal, and four game-winning goals. Brittany Ambrose is second on the team with four goals and is tied for second with eight points. Kat McAuliffe also has eight points on two goals and a team-best four assists. Mariana Galvan and Anjel Brown each have one goal while eight Broncos have recorded one assist. Andi Tostanoski has allowed 15 goals and has a 1.16 GAA. She has picked up 49 saves for a .766 save percentage and has five shutouts.
Santa Clara is a 29-0-1 all-time vs. San Francisco with the first meeting coming in 1985. Last year the Broncos rolled to a 9-0 victory at Buck Shaw over the Dons. The last meeting in San Francisco came in 2012 when the two teams tied 2-2, the only match up the Broncos haven't won.
San Francisco enters the week with a 5-6-2 overall record and a 1-1-0 mark in conference play. Last week the Dons topped LMU 1-0 but fell at No. 11 Pepperdine 2-1. They are 1-0-2 at home this season.
The Dons have been outscored 15-14 but have outshot opponents 139-121 and 59-54 in shots on goal.
"San Francisco is a well organized, well coached, hard working team," said Smith. "They're just like the team we just played down at LMU. In the USF game, it will be similar in that it will be a game where at the end of the match, both teams are fighting to get some type of result.. That kind of training and forcing a team to grind out for the entire duration of the match is something that could be really helpful as we go into the playoffs because one can't win playoff games as easily. They're always a grind. We had a grind on Sunday at LMU and the win and we will have a grind against USF this week and that will help us with going forward."
Six San Francisco players are tied for the team lead with two goals each. Amanda Whittle is tied for the team lead with two assists and leads the Dons with six points. Jessica Nakae has two goals and an assist and is second on the team with five points. Rochelle Weerackoon is tied for the team lead with two assists. Sonja Giraud and Nakae each have attempted a team-high 22 shots but Whittle leads the team with 10 shots on goal. Madalyn Schiffel has played almost every minute in goal and has allowed 15 goals for a 1.14 GAA. She has made 38 saves and has a .717 save percentage with four shutouts.
