SANTA CRUZ -

On their 30th "birthday", UC Santa Cruz's women's team made another memory.

Thirty years to the day, UC Santa Cruz played their first soccer match as an official NCAA program, a 1-0 home loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Since then, the program has tallied plenty of wins and had several memorable moments.
Tuesday might have topped them all. 

UC Santa Cruz came from behind for a 2-1 victory in double overtime over Division II Academy of Art University Tuesday afternoon. The Slugs improved to 3-8 while Academy of Art fell to 0-6-1. 

Head coach Lauren Nadler said "it was a strong team result today. The team talked before the game about playing like warriors. They did that from start to finish. This group never lets up and continually plays for the person next to them."

The Knights scored first in the 20th minute when Sydney Cooke lobbed a close volley over goalie Malia Starita. Academy of Art almost added to their lead in the 70th minute after a corner, but the Knights' header was cleared off the line by Carly Cooper.

Down by a goal, UCSC tied with under nine minutes left on a blast from Nicole Aceves. It was the freshman's first career goal and it inspired UCSC to push ahead.

Sandra Parhami got the last shot for UCSC in regulation, but it was blocked and the Knights raced down field looking for the last shot. AAU's Cooke almost sealed AAU's first win with a rocket from the right of the box, but it hit the post and bounced out allowing Starita to smother it as time expired.

In the first overtime, UCSC almost ended it with six seconds left, but Amelia Streiffer's shot was saved.

The game looked like it would end in a draw, but with under 20 seconds left Claire Lim took a short pass from Izel Gutierrez and unleashed a high rainbow shot from just outside of the midfield circle. It dropped just over the Knights' goalkeeper into the upper middle of the net to set off a raucous celebration off the UCSC bench.

"I knew time was running out and that I've had success with that kind of shot before, so I took the chance," said Lim.

It was the senior's first goal of the season, and gave UCSC its first win over Division II competition since October of 2010, a streak of sixteen games.

"Our team showed so much fight, and it's because no one gave up on the field that we were able to come out with the win," Lim said.