SAN FRANCISCO ? Perhaps coming home with what's left of the squad intact could be considered a victory, but the CSUB women's soccer team also managed to take a share of the spoils as well in earning a scoreless draw at the University of San Francisco Sunday afternoon.
CSUB (2?7?1 overall) entered Sunday's match missing three of its top offensive players due to injuries. But the Roadrunners scrapped together an attack that still managed 10 shots, including six on frame and one off the crossbar, in nearly pulling out the win.
Although the winning goal never came, the Roadrunner defense was stellar. Freshman goalkeeper Nicole Padilla made seven saves to earn her first collegiate shutout, but Head Coach Nicole Van Dyke had praise for the entire defensive unit Sunday.
“Anytime you earn a shutout it shows that your defense is playing well,” said Van Dyke. “We rotated seven defenders today and freshman Leanne Tucker did a tremendous job keeping that group organized.”
While the Bakersfield defense was doing its part, the Roadrunner offense owned arguably the best scoring chance in the match. In the 25th minute, Sarah Gaskins crossed to Alexa Vickroy who flicked a shot off the crossbar. Liz Controneo slipped in to finish the rebound, but USF goalkeeper Katie Hodgson made a kick save to keep the match scoreless.
“I was very happy with our hard work and our competitiveness today,” said Van Dyke. “We're starting mostly freshmen, we've been on the road since the second week of the season and we've we've suffered through some serious injury problems this week.
“It would have been very easy for this team to crumble, but instead we rose to the occasion. That says a lot about the maturity level of this young team and shows we're headed in the right direction.”
CSUB concludes its five?match, 17?day road trip with a pair of matches in San Diego next weekend. The 'Runners play at the University of San Diego Friday night and at San Diego State Sunday afternoon.
Bakersfield returns home Oct. 12 to host fellow NCAA Division I independent Houston Baptist in a men's/women's doubleheader.
