California Baptist University
University of San Diego
CBU Suffers Heartbreaker in San Diego
9/14/2025 7:25:00 PM | Women's Soccer
SAN DIEGO, CA--- An exciting Sunday evening ended in heartbreak for the California Baptist women's soccer team after falling 3-2 to the University of San Diego. Despite falling behind by a pair of goals in the first half, the Lancers rallied with a pair of goals in the latter half of the game before a controversial third penalty kick of the game would be the game-winner for USD. CBU falls to 4-4-1 on the season and is now 1-4-1 on the road.
Penalty kicks were the name of the game as the first of the match would come in the fourth minute in favor of the home team, who neatly put away the goal for an early 1-0 lead. USD would build on its lead with another goal in the 26th minute to head into the locker room with a 2-0 lead at the half over the Lancers. Kristen St. Clair's squad continued to press on and, after dominating possession in the first 45 minutes, entered the second half with an intense first 20 minutes.
The fiery offense paid off after Anja Jestrovic earned her first CBU goal via a penalty kick that she perfectly placed off the left post out of reach of the USD keeper. Jestrovic contributed to the equalizer as well for the Lancers after whipping in a set piece that the Torero keeper could not hold onto for Ava Westlund to tap in. CBU continued to press the USD backline through the second half, but their efforts would be diluted by another penalty kick in favor of USD. Mikayla O'Brien stepped up with a phenomenal save, but another Torero forward tapped in the rebound for the 3-2 win.
"This was another tough non conference game. We started a bit sluggish, but showed a lot of heart to fight our way back into the game. After making some adjustments at halftime, we were able to find our attacking rhythm and pressure them higher up the field," said St. Clair. "That showed with two goals in a twenty minute span. The difference came down to giving up two penalty kicks. Would have been nice to see them reviewed for accuracy, but we can't control that. We just can't give up two penalty kicks to a team like that. Two great goals by Ava and Anya. I was really impressed with our ability to battle back and tie the game. I believe we would have found two more goals, but unfortunately we just ran out of time".
The Lancers will close out their non-conference schedule with a final match against Weber State at home on Thursday evening before turning their attention to Western Athletic Conference play.
