LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The 11th-ranked UC San Diego women's soccer team scored five second half goals to cruise past Cal State Monterey Bay by a 6-0 score on Sunday afternoon at Triton Soccer Field. With the win the Tritons improve to 11-1-0 overall and 7-1-0 in CCAA action while the Otters fall to 1-10-1 overall and 0-7-1 in league play.
Despite out-shooting CSUMB by a 16-3 margin in the first half, UCSD could only manage to sneak the ball into the net once as Alise Malley netted her fourth of the season off a rebounded shot from Natasha Belak-Berger. That goal came at the 38:18 mark of the first half.
The Tritons continued to pound the Otters' defense with shot, taking 17 in the second half. Ali Lai took four of those shots in the second stanza and scored on three of those opportunities. Her first goal of the game came at the 52”04 mark as she took a deflected Heather Sugg shot and slid it past the CSUMB keeper for her sixth tally of the year.
Lai's second goal of the game came just over 10 minutes later as Kelly Mayo slid heel pass behind her to Kathy Sepulveda who flicked it on to Lai who knocked it low for the 3-0 lead. She made it 4-0 on her eighth goal of the year as she headed home a pass from Megan Dickey at the 66:12 mark.
Belak-Berger added the team's fifth goal six minutes later as she put home a header off a Caitlin Ryan corner kick. A mere 30 seconds later, Sereena Warino caught the reserve CSUMB netminder, Erika Ulfelder, out of position and lobbed in her first career goal at UCSD from 16 yards out.
Mia Shirley played the first 72 minutes of the match for the Tritons and made two saves early on. She gave way to Jessica McGovern who played the final 18 minutes and secured UCSD's sixth-straight shutout and eighth overall.
UCSD returns to action next week with three matches on the road beginning with a match at Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday, October 12 at 4:30 p.m. Friday's match at Chico State is slated to begin at 7 p.m. while Sunday's match at Cal State Stanislaus will begin at 3 p.m.
