LOS ANGELES - UC San Diego suffered a season-ending 3-1 defeat to Cal State L.A. in a first-round match of the 2015 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Men's Soccer Tournament at Jesse Owens Track on Tuesday night.
Sixth-seeded UCSD concludes the 2015 campaign at an even 6-6-6 overall and with a third successive postseason appearance under eighth-year head coach Jon Pascale. Third-seeded CSULA improves to 12-3-2. The Golden Eagles advance to take on 24th-ranked host Cal Poly Pomona in the second semifinal in primetime this Friday night, Nov. 6. Kickoff at Kellogg Field on the CPP campus is slated for 7 p.m.
The first 45 minutes Tuesday night saw just seven shots between the sides and no goals. The home team broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute, as Samuel Kersh tallied his first of 2015 off an assist by Kaan Gultoprak. At 75:05, it was 2-0, Eduardo Almaraz finding the target with helpers going to Kersh and Herbert Biste. Gultoprak himself put the result out of doubt at 82:18, providing his unassisted third.
UCSD's only goal came from junior winger Nick Palano at 86:47. Sophomore forward Uly de la Cal was credited with his team-best fourth assist. It was Palano's second goal this season, both coming at Cal State L.A. He had tallied the winner in a 1-0 decision in the regular-season meeting between the rivals back on Oct. 4, that from an exquisite volley in the 88th minute.
Redshirt junior goalkeeper Cameron McElfresh finished with three saves for UCSD. Senior Anthony Perez had five stops for CSULA.
"We made a couple of little mistakes, and (Cal State L.A. makes) you pay," summed up Pascale. "The first half was pretty even. We were playing well in the second half, but gave up an unnecessary free kick, and they converted on what was kind of a freak deflection. We had an unbelievable chance right after and couldn't convert. It was there for us. They were able to put it away after that.
"All-in-all, I'm happy with what this team was able to accomplish. We were a young team that battled through some adversity. A lot of guys played a lot of minutes and got some good experience. We beat some really good teams along the way."
The Tritons are now 2-6-2 in eight CCAA tourney appearances. UCSD had also lost its only prior tournament matchup with the Golden Eagles, 1-0, in the 2013 final in Turlock. The Tritons had their 2014 season ended by CSULA as well, in the first round of the NCAA Championship in Azusa. The teams played to a 1-1 draw through two overtimes, before the Golden Eagles came away with a 5-4 advantage in the penalty-kick tiebreaker.
The Tritons had no seniors on their 2015 roster.
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