The Cal Poly women’s soccer team (5-3-5, 1-2-0 Big West), coming off a 7-2 victory over Hawaii, lost 2-0 to Long Beach State (6-3-3, 2-0-0) during a Thursday night conference matchup at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. It was Cal Poly’s first matchup against Long Beach State since the Mustangs fell to the 49ers by a score of 5-4 in penalty kicks during the 2014 Big West Conference semi-final in December.
The Mustangs’ senior goalkeeper Alyssa Giannetti saved the first shot of the game, which came from Long Beach State’s freshman midfielder Jordan Sanders during the 26th minute. Gannetti and senior defender Robin Mertens both stopped another Long Beach State shot in the 28th minute.
The 49ers’ junior goalkeeper Ashton McKeowen saved Cal Poly’s best chance to score when she pushed Elise Krieghoff’s 62nd-minute shot on goal over the crossbar.
Freshman forward Fatama Kamara scored the first goal of the night for Long Beach State in the 57th minute on a chip pass from junior midfielder Mimi Rangel. Another goal by Long Beach State senior forward Vania Robles in the 74th minute sealed the Mustangs’ 2-0 loss.
“Well I think we came out a little flat, and we didn’t have the sharpness that we’ve had the last few weeks,” head coach Alex Crozier said. “Long Beach is a good team, very skillful, they hold the ball, they scored a couple of nice goals. The conference is tough game, we just have to rebound from it and look forward to Sunday at Northridge.”
Cal Poly, now 1-2-0 in the Big West Conference, begins a two-game road trip with a matchup Sunday afternoon against CSUN (7-5-1, 1-0-1) with a game time of 1 p.m.
“Northridge is a tough place to play at 1 in the afternoon, but they have to do it too,” Crozier said.