October 9, 2010
UCSC vs. Occidental

LOS ANGELES, CA.---The UC Santa Cruz Women's soccer team took the second of three trips to the greater Los Angeles area this weekend to battle two opponents in the SCIAC conference. The Slugs faced off against Occidental College on their home turf field on a pleasant Saturday night. The battle lasted an entire 110 minutes through two overtime periods with no clear-cut contest winner. The Slugs made their way to southern California with several newly travelling freshman players who saw their first time this season on the pitch in L.A.  Senior Captain-Goalkeeper Janneke Lang played the first ninety minutes and was able to keep Occidental at bay with a clean sheet. Elle Vermillion took over for the 20 minutes of overtime and proved solid as well. Newcomer  to the pitch and freshman forward Michelle Stathatos showed tremendous work-rate on the fast field and nearly put away two chances with both opportunities grazing over the crossbar once in the first half and then dangerously in the overtime period. It looked as though Slug forward Jessica Scolaro was about to deliver the game winner in the last seconds on the clock, but her dribbling effort down the right line and final shot bent over the crossbar and out of bounds. The Occidental Tigers went to 7-1-2 on the season with this tie, while UCSC looks to garner its first win.

"We put together both sides of the ball today, offense and defense. " commented coach Schelhorse.  "We were unfortunate not to find the win.  We have had a few games like this, this season.  Overtime loses and ties, that if we had found a way to win, could have changed the look of our season.  We are learning that as hard as we are training and playing, we need more."