LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego wrapped up its 2024 season with a two-nil senior night victory over Cal Poly Thursday night inside Triton Soccer Stadium. UC San Diego sisters
Lindsey Park and
Kailey Park scored second half goals to lead the Tritons to victory. Senior captain
Courtney Hilliard assisted on both Triton scores. On the other end, Triton sophomore goalkeeper
Ginny Fronk made a career-high 14 saves.
UC San Diego (3-12-4 overall, 1-6-3 Big West) earned points in three of its final four Big West matches. Cal Poly concludes its season at 5-11-3 (3-6-1).
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams came out firing, ripping a pair of shots on frame in the first ten minutes of the match. For the Tritons, junior
Lindsey Park sent it in from the right side to a cutting
Courtney Hilliard. The senior captain ripped a shot with authority, but Cal Poly goalkeeper Mackenzie Samuel made a stop to keep the match scoreless. On the other end of the pitch, Fronk came up big with several quality saves, making six first-half stops.
The Mustangs held a slim 8-6 shots advantage in the scoreless first half, and the visitors earned three corner kicks to one for UC San Diego.
The Tritons got on the scoreboard in the 61st minute when Hilliard fed Park who fired it into the goal to give UC San Diego a lead.
Just five minutes later,
Lindsey Park's big sister,
Kailey Park, scored her first goal as a Triton – again off a feed from Hilliard – to put the Tritons up, two-nil.
Fronk made some key saves down the stretch to preserve the shutout – her third clean sheet of the season.
QUOTABLE
"There was so much emotion tonight, and I honestly thought the team handled it better than I did," said UC San Diego head coach
Kristin Jones '04 following the match. "We settled in and really performed well. It was great to break through on Lindsey's goal, and how cool was that for Kailey to score her first collegiate goal in her last match? I'm really proud of this team, for all we've been through, to work as hard as they have and each day to show up with a great attitude and willingness to play for each other."
TRITON TIDBITS
- Hilliard ends her Triton career with 11 assists – more than anyone else in the program's Division I era.
- Prior to the match, UC San Diego honored its eight-member graduating class: Natalie Abel, Camryn Borg, Skylar Enge, Lucy Granger, Courtney Hilliard, Raquel Kalpakoff, Kailey Park, and Audrey Reed.
- Granger made her first career start for the Tritons.
- The win was the Tritons' second straight over the Mustangs in the final match of a season. UC San Diego was a 1-0 winner at Cal Poly in the 2023 finale.
- The Tritons wore their navy kits with Fronk in baby blue.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
