Cal Poly, which earned the No. 1 seed in the Big West Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament, will host UC Irvine at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The Mustangs enter the game on a seven-game win streak and have won 11 of the last 12 contests. After defeating UCSB 1-0 on Sunday, Cal Poly is 13- 5-0 overall while UC Irvine earned the No. 4 seed by tiebreaker and posts a 12-6-2 record.
UC Irvine got the bid based on goal differential after ending the regular season tied with Cal State Fullerton and Pacific.
Tanya Taylor and Dana Sanderlin each have scored six goals and have four assists to lead the team. UCI has outshot opponents 281-161 with 145 on goal. Daniellle de Seriere has played 18 of the team’s 20 games between the posts and allows 0.93 goals per game with a save percentage of .779.
The team enters the match having won its last two games, shutting out both Long Beach State and Gonzaga.
Coral Hoover moved up to fourth in the national rankings with a .917 save percentage and currently ranks 24th in goals against average with .0.59. As a team, Cal Poly is seventh in the nation with a 0.84 save percentage.
Cal Poly’s 13 wins this season is the most the team has had since the 2003 season when the team was 18-2-2, earning a bid in the NCAA Tournament but losing in the first round to Arizona State. That team was also the last team to record six consecutive shutouts.
Cal Poly has scored 26 goals this season coming from 12 different players. Gummow leads the team with five goals while Cici Kobinski has four. Morgan Miller, and Julianne Grinstead each have three and five players hold one.
For the second time this season the Mustangs are receiving votes in the NSCAA Poll. Stanford, Cal Poly’s first opponent of the season has swept all 32 first place votes while other Cal Poly opponents who have appeared in the top-25 have dropped out. Also receiving votes early in the year was Long Beach State.