Oct. 27, 2016

Box Score | Watch UC Davis spoil UCSB's Senior Night

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - With each team's playoff hopes on the line, UC Santa Barbara scored first in Thursday's Big West Conference match at Harder Stadium when Dakota Griggs scored the first goal of the evening 15 minutes after kick-off. But in a UC Davis-dominated second half, it was déjà vu along the coast when Santa Barbara native Olivia Jones scored her first goal as an Aggie in the 60th minute to tie things up at one apiece.

Two years ago, Santa Barbara local Rachel Ahr scored her first goal as an Aggie when UC Davis last made the trip to Harder Stadium.

In the 87th minute, Nicole Carson notched her second goal of the season, a shot that ultimately kept UC Davis' playoff drive alive, and destroyed the Gauchos' postseason aspirations since that was the game-winning strike that lifted the Aggies to a 2-1 win.

UC Davis will now head to Cal Poly for Sunday's 2 p.m. matchup with a 7-8-3 overall and 3-3-1 league record. UC Santa Barbara is now 11-5-2, 2-4-1 and will end its season at Long Beach State three days from now.

With their victory, the Aggies also snapped the Gauchos' season-long streak: In all 11 victories collected throughout the season, they were the first team to score a goal. And even though UCSB struck first, UC Davis' midfielders and back line prevented them from extending that streak thanks to their stellar play throughout the evening.

What started with a free kick taken by Mandy McKeegan turned into the Aggies' first goal when Jones fought her way past three UCSB defenders to receive her teammate's pass at the top left-hand corner of the 18-yard box. Once collected, she turned and fired near post -- an attempt that not only caught Santa Barbara's goalkeeper off-guard, but kicked with such pace that even though she dove towards that side of goal, she had zero chance of deflecting, or stopping that shot.

It was another heads-up play from Nicole Bouvia, late in the game, that led to the decisive goal of the game.

With UCSB in possession of the ball, and looking to escape its third of the field, Bouvia intercepted a pass just outside the 18-yard box, along the far sideline, and immediately passed it across the field to Carson. Once Carson took a couple of quick dribbles, she fired a shot, from a spot not too far from where Jones scored her goal, back across the field towards the far post.

Once again, even though UCSB goalkeeper Jacq Caginia did everything correctly -- she stepped off her line in an attempt to decrease Carson's shooting angle, and lunged towards the ball once it left the ground -- she could do nothing but watch the ball curl around her outstretched fingers, and roll to a stop in the back of the net.

Combined with Long Beach State's scoreless draw at UC Riverside, Sunday's game at Cal Poly is a must-win for UC Davis. The Aggies will enter that matchup vs. the Mustangs in fifth place with 10 points in the league's standings, two shy of the 49ers who currently share third place with Cal State Fullerton at 12 points.

Only the top four teams will advance to next week's Big West Conference Women's Soccer Tournament.

Long Beach State will host UCSB in its season finale; all four games on the conference's Sunday docket will begin at 2 p.m. that day.