Box Score
(Santa Clara, Calif.) - The University of San Francisco women's soccer team dropped a 5-0 decision Sunday to nationally-ranked Santa Clara at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara. The Broncos entered the game ranked No. 13 in the national polls.
With the loss, USF falls to 5-10-0 overall, 2-2 in West Coast Conference play.
There is a reason that Santa Clara is ranked in the top 20," said head coach Mark Carr. "They won the game in the first half today. We are hugely disappointed in the result and our performance in the 1st half. We sat off them, gave them to much space and when you do that, you get punished. They did that with four goals."
The Dons defense struggled to fend off the Broncos in the first half, allowing four goals. Santa Clara's Sophia Huerta scored two goals in the half both of which were assisted by Julie Johnston.
In the opening 45 minutes, USF fired just one shot while SCU tallied 21 and took eight corner kicks.
"In the second half, we played much better on the defensive end and really limited their shots from outside shooting range," added Carr. I wish we had done this in the first half. Emily did an awesome job in the goal and made three or four big time saves."
San Francisco's defense stepped up in the second stanza, allowing one goal off of 14 Bronco shots.
Freshman Emily Murzinski made her collegiate debut Sunday in goal for the Dons. In 63 minutes of play, she garnered 10 saves. Cecilia Pellegrini came off the bench to appear in the net for 27 minutes, earning three saves.
"I think our focus now is how we can improve based on today and getting ready this week for Portland," Carr said. "We need a good week of training as it will not be an easy game. I know our players are hugely disappointed and we feel we have let ourselves down. We will go to work on the training field to fix it all."
San Francisco returns to the pitch Sunday, Oct. 23 as it hosts Portland at Negoesco Stadium. The match will be the Dons' "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" contest, with first kick slated for 1 p.m.
