UC Irvine's Natalia Ledezma scored a hat trick against Cal State Northridge in the Anteaters' 4-0 win

College Soccer News: Big West Women’s Soccer Enters Final Week

As Big West Conference women’s soccer action enters its final week, UC Irvine and UC Davis battle for first place, with Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State close behind. The top four teams will advance to the 2011 Big West Tournament in early November. The No. 1 seed will host the No. 4 team, while the No. 2 seed hosts No. 3. If there are no changes in position this final week, Long Beach will visit Irvine while Northridge travels to Davis.

The next-to-last week of play was particularly good for UC Davis (11-4-1 overall, 4-1-1 conference) as the Aggies knocked off non-conference Cal State Bakersfield 4-3 on Thursday, October 20, and then downed UC Santa Barbara 2-0 on Sunday, October 23. This has been a huge turnaround for a team that was originally picked to finish eighth in the conference in preseason polling. The Aggies’ 11 wins are the most since 2002 and their best ever since joining the Big West Conference in 2007. Their final regular season games will be on the road at Long Beach State on Friday, October 28, and Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, October 30. Wins in both those games would put the Aggies in at least a tie for the No. 1 spot.

At UC Irvine, the Anteaters (12-3-2/5-1-1) are looking for their second straight regular season title and can clinch at least a tie for the top spot with a win on Sunday against UC Riverside. In their only game of the weekend, UCI handily defeated Cal State Northridge 4-0 behind Natalia Ledezma’s first hat trick as an Anteater and the university’s first in 15 years. Currently the Anteaters are ranked No. 19 by Soccer America and have landed on at least one top-25 list for 19 straight weeks, going back to September 27, 2010.

In spite of their tough loss to UC Irvine, Cal State Northridge remains in a tie for second on points with UC Davis. The Matadors have an excellent chance to finish in the top three for the third straight year, having finished second in 2009 and in a tie for third in 2010. Northridge faces UC Riverside on Thursday, October 27, and non-conference Cal State Bakersfield on Sunday. Although a win against Bakersfield would be a positive, it won’t help in the standings, so a win at Riverside is needed for that top three finish.

Long Beach State could make the biggest move of the week, if everything falls into place. After defeating UC Riverside 1-0 on Sunday the 49ers sit in the No. 4 spot with a 4-2-0 conference record (11-5-1 overall), just one point behind UC Davis and Cal State Northridge. Long Beach welcomes UC Davis on Friday and Pacific on Sunday. Wins in those two games, coupled with a UC Irvine loss or tie against UC Riverside, would vault the 49ers into the top spot in the conference – their first regular season title since 2008.

Although not mathematically eliminated, Cal Poly (9-8-1/3-4-0), Pacific (8-7-1/2-3-1) and UC Riverside (7-8-2/2-3-1) would need to win all of their final games and hope for higher ranked teams to lose or tie in order to slip into one of the top four positions. Although they currently sit in fifth position in the conference, Cal Poly has the least chance with only one game remaining against UC Santa Barbara on Friday. Pacific can look forward to Cal State Fullerton on Friday and Long Beach State on Sunday, while Riverside faces Cal State Northridge on Thursday and UC Irvine on Sunday.

One other Big West team is chasing notoriety this season – Cal State Fullerton is closing in on the NCAA record for most overtime games in a season. With their 1-1 tie against UC Riverside on Sunday the Titans set a new single-season school record with 10 extra time matches. With two games left they could match or pass the 11-game record currently held by William and Mary, set in 2005.

In addition to clinching a spot in the Big West Tournament, UC Irvine’s win against Cal State Northridge gave the Anteaters both top individual honors for the week. For her hat trick against the Matadors, sophomore forward Natalia Ledezma was named Big West Conference Offensive Player of the Week. It was her second straight week for the honor and third on the season, and the fifth time an Anteater has won this year. Lexi Kopf and Cami Privett are the other two offensive honorees for Irvine.

On the other end of the pitch, UC Irvine’s senior defender Sarah Devine was named Big West Defensive Player of the Week for leading a defense that not only shut out the Matadors but only allowed two shots on goal for the match. Devine also added an assist to her record, helping on Ledezma’s second goal. Devine joined CoCo Goodson and Jennifer Randazzo winning top defensive honors on the season.

The Big West Conference is a nine-member Division I conference that is currently the only athletic conference with all of its members in one state (California). In 2012 the conference will add the University of Hawai’i at Manoa – its first non-California school since 2005 – and Cal State Sacramento. The Big West currently sponsors 15 sports, including men’s and women’s soccer, basketball, and track and field.

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