SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After just one game at home, Santa Clara women's soccer heads back out on the road for a pair of West Coast Conference showdowns. The Broncos play at No. 19 BYU on Thurs., Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and at San Diego at 1 p.m. on Sun., Oct. 26. Last week Santa Clara beat Pacific 2-0 and is now 10-5-0 overall and 3-1-0 in conference play.
"Not to take anything away from Pacific, they worked very hard in the game, but I thought we were flat and we didn't get enough shots on goal on Sunday," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "The quality in the attacking third wasn't near what we wanted it to be and given that we only gave up two shots I thought defensively we didn't win the ball high enough on the field, as we normally would do. I think it also can be a good sign if a team plays flat and comes away with a 2-0 victory so there are some positives to take away from that. But I think that the team is looking forward to having a better performance in our next game."
The Broncos have outscored opponents 21-15 and outshot teams 177-143 with an 81-70 edge in shots on goal. The Broncos are tied for fourth in the conference with 21 goals and are fifth in shots.
Sofia Huerta is second in the WCC with 10 goals and leads the Broncos with 22 points while tying for second on the team with two assists. Brittany Ambrose is second on the roster with five goals and is tied with Kat McAuliffe for second with 10 points. McAuliffe leads the team with four assists and is third with three goals. Mariana Galvan, Nikki Ambrose, and Anjel Brown each have one goal while eight Broncos have at least one assist. Andi Tostanoski has allowed 15 goals for a 1.00 GAA and has made 53 saves for a .779 save percentage. She has collected seven shutouts on the season.
Santa Clara is 7-0-2 all-time vs. BYU with the first meeting coming in 1993. Last year the Bronco topped BYU 2-1 at home. The last meeting in Provo was a 0-0 tie in 2012. In four meeting as WCC opponents the Broncos are 2-0-2 against the Cougars.
"BYU is on a nine game winning streak right now and really playing well," said Smith. "They were one of the teams picked to win the conference championship this year and they're playing really well right now. They stumbled out of the gate a little bit but they've really hit their stride, playing well, scoring lots of goals and not conceding very many goals, so they pose a big challenge for us. The last time we were up at BYU we fought hard for a 0-0 tie and I think this is going to be one of the biggest challenges of our conference season. But our team has performed well in each one of our conference road games, even in the loss at Pepperdine. There is something to be said for kind of the grittiness that it takes to perform well on the road and this team has performed well on the road and so I'm really excited about the challenges we have up at BYU and on Sunday at San Diego."
BYU has outscored opponents 32-12 on the season and have a 259-124 edge in shots and a 129-55 edge in shots on goal. The Cougars lead the WCC in shots and goals and are second in assists.
Ashley Hatch leads the WCC with 12 goal and 29 points while tying for the team lead with five assists. Nikki Fernandes is tied for second on the Cougars with four goals and tied for the team lead with five assists. Her 13 points is second on the team. Elena Medeiros has scored four goals and is third with four assists and 12 points. Marissa Nummer, Michele Murphy, and Elisabeth Phillips each have three goals apiece. Maddie Lyons has found the back of the net twice while Nadia Gomes has scored once. Katherine Snyder has seen the majority of time in goal and has allowed seven goals for a 0.63 GAA. She has made 28 saves for a .800 save percentage and has four solo shutouts with a hand in four more.
Santa Clara is 15-7-0 all-time vs. San Diego with the first meeting coming in 1992. Last year the Broncos won 1-0 at home. The last game in San Diego was a 3-2 win in 2012.
"San Diego is a very different type of team from BYU," said Smith. "They're one of the few teams in the country that play a man-to-man style of defense. Any time you go on the road you hope that you take one flight and stay in one hotel for your two games. This is fly to Salt Lake, fly to San Diego, so there's a flight in between games, there's a change of hotel and then you have the additional challenge of playing teams that are very different. These are drastically different game plans. Both teams are good, both teams will be tough to beat at their home, but the game plans are very different, so that's the additional challenge."
San Diego has outscored opponents 21-17 but has been outshot 188-111 and 89-48 in shots on goal. The Toreros are tied for fourth in the WCC with 21 goals but are last with 111 shots.
Victoria Walker and Julia Sherwood are tied for the team lead with four goals each. They both also have one assist for nine points. Nikki Pappalarado is tops on the Toreros with seven assists and is tied for second on the team with nine points. Mariah Butera leads the team with 10 points and is second with six assists. Jacquelin Altschuld is second on San Diego with three goals and has two assists for eight points. McKenna Tollack has seen 750 minutes in net while Michelle Craft has plated 539. Tollack has allowed 11 goals for a 1.32 GAA and has made 36 saves for a .766 save percentage. Craft has allowed six goals for a 1.00 GAA and has made 34 saves for a .850 save percentage. Tollack has three solo shutouts and has combined with Craft for two more.
One advantage the Broncos have is they get an extra day between games.
"If you've got that flight in between games you want the extra days rest and when you have different game plans you want the extra day of preparation," said Smith. "We do have that extra day and that will help us. It still will be a challenging weekend for us, but it's a little less challenging in that we have the extra day of rest and preparation."