The San Diego State Aztecs (1-2) defeated the University of California Berkeley Golden Bears (0-3) 15-6 on Friday, Feb. 18 and lost to the University of California Davis Aggies (1-0) 16-13 on Sunday, Feb 20. The Aztecs had a huge team win against the Golden Bears but were unable to carry the momentum against the Aggies.
SDSU vs. Cal Feb. 18:
Senior Deanna Balsama picked up where she left off at USC and scored the first goal of the game. She ended up with five goals in the game and now has eight goals to start the season.
Head coach Kylee White said to goaztecs.com that she was impressed with how Balsama played despite good defense from the Golden Bears.
“Deanna faced a lot of high-pressure defense but still managed to score five goals because of the work her teammates put in to get her opportunities,” White said.
Senior captain Bailey Brown — who didn’t score at all against USC — scored four goals in the game.
White was impressed with her ability to not just put in four goals but to be everywhere on the field to help out.
“Bailey was all over the field and did a little bit of everything, scooping up ground balls, winning draw controls while also scoring goals,” White said.
Golden Bear junior Riley Drullinger made 14 saves to Aztec junior captain Sam Horan’s 11 saves.
Drullinger was great in the first half, allowing just five goals, but then the Aztecs poured 10 shots past her in the second half.
Horan — who had little help on defense against USC — had a great defensive core in front of her against the Golden Bears.
Offensively and defensively the Aztecs showed how to fight for a win against a Pac-12 team.
“Every person on the roster contributed tonight,” White said. “I’m really proud of how our team took control of the controllable and gutted out the win because playing Cal is always a battle and we had to fight until the last whistle.”
SDSU @ UC Davis Feb. 20:
White believed the new transfers — Balsama and senior Julia Lytle — would make a huge impact this season and they sure have.
Balsama had six goals and Lytle had a new career-high in five goals and seven ground balls in the game.
White loves seeing their playstyles continuing to grow.
“We had some good individual efforts and exceptional performances from Julia and Deanna,” White said. “Their ability to continue to attack and not let up was amazing. We had so many shots in that first quarter (12 shots and eight shots on goal) but kept hitting the pipe, unfortunately. I’m glad they continued to shoot and continued to battle.”
Balsama has 14 goals and Lytle has six to start the season.
Both teams ended up with 29 shots on goal and that is why the game was a three-goal spread.
It wasn’t until six seconds remained in the third quarter that Aggie junior Mia Lawrence — assisted by junior Alex Agnew — put the game-winner in the back of the net to make it 14-9. Lawrence had three goals and one assist for a total of four points.
Agnew had four goals and four assists for a total of eight points. She would end up getting the last goal for UC Davis to make it 16-10 and with three more goals by the Aztecs late in the fourth quarter, time ran out.
The Aztec defense gave too many close-up goals which cost the team the game.
White needs the defense to start closing the gaps in the middle and to protect the goalie.
“We let them get too many goals close up,” White said. “We need to do a better job of protecting our goalie and the middle, but we felt we were going to come back and win but we just ran out of time at the end.”
The Aztecs will finish up their five-game road trip to start the season with the Arizona State Sun Devils (0-2) on Friday, Feb. 25 and the Oregon Ducks (1-2) on Sunday, Feb. 27.
