California Baptist University
10-2-1, 3-1
Grand Canyon
4-11, 1-2
Third-Straight Shutout Victory for CBU
10/7/2018 5:28:00 PM | Women's Soccer
With the win, the Lancers improve to 10-2-1 on the year, 3-1-0 in the Western Athletic Conference to move into a tie for second place in the conference standings. The Lopes drop to 4-11-0 overall, 1-2 in the WAC.
"The team had a great week of preparation and our performance showed we were prepared to play," said Coach Kristen St. Clair. "We knew going into today this was a great opportunity for us to earn our 10th win of the inaugural NCAA Division I season and move up in the WAC standings. In order to take advantage of this opportunity and get the result we needed to execute three things: match GCU's physicality, beat them to the first balls and beat them to the second balls. Those are strengths of GCU that we saw on tape and if we could do that, we'd put ourself in a great position. Not only did we execute those three items very well, but we created dangerous scoring opportunities the entire game."
CBU turned the pressure on early and less than five minutes into the game, Jordan Dow had a chance that went just wide.
Rebecca Romero, who leads the team in assists, looked to create some more chances for the Lancers and got to the endline to send the ball into the box, but the GCU goalkeeper made an important snag out of the air to keep it out of danger.
Despite their chances, the Lancers went into halftime deadlocked at 0-0 with the Lopes.
The goal came in the 63rd minute, when Ari Coronado buried it into the back of the net from the right side of the box to put CBU up 1-0. Coronado had just come into the game less than 90 seconds before scoring her first collegiate goal of her career.
"I was overcome with excitement; I was so happy to turn around and celebrate with my team," said Coronado. "We have worked so hard in training and we knew this game was huge so to come out on top was probably the best feeling ever! Honestly, I'm still shocked that I scored my first collegiate goal. I've been dreaming about this day ever since I was a little girl."
Carissa Christensen only had to make one save to preserve the shutout for the Lancers, her fourth of the year.
"Our defense held well and Carissa did a great job organizing the defense for the shutout," said St. Clair. "I wasn't too worried about losing our goal and thought we could have scored a few more."
CBU looks to carry momentum from its third-straight win into a big matchup this week when Kansas City comes to town for a 3 p.m. kickoff on Friday. The Roos are the only team left in the WAC holding onto a perfect conference record.
"Overall, I'm very pleased with the team's execution and performance," said St. Clair. "I thought this was one of our best games of the year so far. We turn our focus now to next weekend as we'll have two difficult games at home vs UMKC and Utah Valley. UMKC is first in conference, so we know we'll have our preparation and work cut out for us this week."
Team Stats
Ari Coronado (1)
scored from the right side of the box into the top right corner
62:18
