On a sunny Sunday at Cox Stadium, the San Francisco State University women’s soccer team ended the weekend on a good note with a 2-0 victory over California State University, Monterey Bay Otters.
Freshman Tami Kwong started October leading her team in goals with five.
Kwong scored her fifth goal of the season on Sunday. It came from an error by the Otters defense, leaving her and the Otter’s goalkeeper in a one on one match where the young Gator crushed the ball past the goalie in the 15 minute.
“Offensively we did much better than Friday,” Kwong said. “We connected way more passes and created more scoring opportunities for ourselves.”
It may have been the start of a new month or the clear sunny sky that helped SF State offensively, because the Gators improved on their shots– having only shot nine times on a gloomy Friday, Sept. 29 to 15 times on Sunday.
During the second half of the match, the Otters couldn’t find a way to keep the Gators off their side of the field– SF State’s quick ability to swarm the ball caused Monterey Bay to commit mistakes.
In one of those intercepted passes, senior Vanessa Penuna drove the ball 10 yards, then chipped it over the last Monterey Bay defender for senior Laura Shea to volley it into the loneliest corner of the goal, to put the Gators up 2-0 in the 65 minute.
The Otters tried to make a late comeback but was shut down by the Gator defense who have only allowed two goals in 10 matches.
This Sunday showed that the Gators have turned Cox Stadium into their swamp by being undefeated at home 5-0, devouring anyone who even tries to beat them.
“I think that we are starting to really understand the way that each other play and come together as a team,” head coach Tracy Hamm said. “Overall I’m really happy with the results this weekend.”
SF State will travel to the University of California, San Diego (9-2) to face the Tritons, who have not lost a conference match, on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. On Oct. 8 the Gators will finish their Southern California trip at California State University, San Marcos (6-4), where it will be another tough challenge for a Cougars squad that has only lost one match at home.
