Bria Park was more nervous Thursday night than at any other time during the women’s soccer season, but she wasn’t worried about the game.
For the second time in her women’s soccer career Park sang the national anthem.
“I’m used to playing in the game but singing is new to me,” the music minor said.
Cal Poly head coach Alex Crozier said that Park pumped up the rest of the team.
“(Hearing her sing) was really cool,” he said. “Its not every day that you hear someone with a nice voice like that.”
The team seemed inspired by Parks performance and it didn’t take long for the Mustangs to get on the board with a goal in the 19th minute from Cici Kobinski, who became Cal Poly’s leading scorer.
Cal Poly’s women soccer came into Thursday’s match atop of the Big West (3-1) to face conference opponent UC Davis. The game was also a grudge match for the Mustangs, having lost to the Aggies for the first time last year at Davis.
Rochelle VanBuskirk, Davis’ leading scorer entered the game with 12 goals while the Mustangs entered the game with four players leading the team with three goals.
Crozier attributed the diversity of goal scorers to his player’s soccer intelligence.
“They are pretty savvy soccer players, they all see the game pretty well so they are able to find each other and Bianca found Cici for that goal,” he said.
The saves also secured her seventh shutout of the season. Hoover has been a stand out on the Mustangs winning Big West player of the week twice this year. She also leads the Big West in save percentage but Davis had several opportunities with seven shots on goal.
“We had a couple of breakdowns defensivly and Coral came up big (and) really saved our butts again,” Crozier said.
Cal Poly never got the insurance goal but there were several close attempts. Tiffany Gummow had a solid strike in the 83rd minute but Sarah Peters did her best Coral Hoover impression and made the save.
The Mustangs improved to 10-5 overall on the season with three games left before the Big West Conference Tournament. Cal Poly can go into the tournament with a No. 1 ranking if they win their remaining games, which are all against conference opponents. All three teams only have one loss in the Big West.
Cal Poly’s last scheduled home game is Sunday at 1 p.m. against Long Beach State.
As for Park, the junior midfielder said she wants to sing again, but not till next year.