SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After a four-game home stand, No. 23 Santa Clara women's soccer, No. 5 in the RPI, heads back out on the road for one game this week. The Broncos will play at UC Irvine on Fri., Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. Last week Santa Clara beat CSUN 3-1 and upset No. 6 Stanford in a 1-0 thriller on the night of the Stevens Stadium dedication. The Broncos are 6-3-0 on the season.
"You hear coaches refer to 'trap games' and it's a realistic phenomenon," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "One thing that helps to prevent that is creating a culture of staying in the moment. One reason we were able to win the Stanford game was because we never talked about winning that game. We talked about staying in the moment and taking care of the task at hand. The most important thing in consistency is routine and we have good habits that will help avoid a letdown."
Dani Weatherholt leads Santa Clara with three goals and is tied for the team lead with six points. She has also scored two game-winning goals this season. Jenna Roering is tied with Weatherholt with six points on two goals and two assists. Grace Cutler and Julie Vass each had two goals as well with one and two game-winners respectively. Megan Crosson leads the team with three assists. Three other Broncos have scored one goal each.
Andi Tostanoski, the WCC Player of the Week, has allowed just five goals for a 0.56 GAA. She has made 47 saves for a .904 save percentage, which is tied for ninth in the country and has five shutouts.
Santa Clara is 11-0-1 all-time vs. UC Irvine with the first meeting coming in 1984. Last year the Broncos opened the season with a 2-0 win vs. the Anteaters at home.
"Road games are always tough but one of the things we learned about ourselves early in the year is that we're going to be tough on the road," said Smith. "Irvine is a team we don't play a lot so we're not as familiar with them as someone like Stanford. We'll make sure we have the team watch some film on Irvine and talk about what challenges they present as a team. This is more about challenging our team to keep the momentum so it will be about us more than about Irvine. We want to see them improve on our performances from the last weekend. If we stay focused on that we will have the best chance to have a great performance on Friday."
The Anteaters are 4-5-1 on the season and 1-1 at home. Last week they fell at Florida International 2-0 before coming back with a 1-0 win at Florida Atlantic.
Kiana Palacios leads the team with five points and three assists to go with one goal. Tatyana Garrett is tops on the roster with two goals. Four other players have each scored one goal and seven others have at least one assist.
Corey Tobin has played every minute in goal and has allowed 13 goals for a 1.25 GAA. She has picked up 42 saves for a .764 save percentage and has four shutouts.
