OREM – When you live in Utah, there are the two giants. BYU and U of U. They eat up the sports coverage, and for good reason. But tonight, this weekend, the UVU women’s soccer team won the Big West Championship in their first year in the conference. They took down UC San Diego 2-1.
“Tonight wasn’t our best performance of the season, but they figure it out,” said head coach Chris Lemay. “They figure out a way to still get the result.”
The first goal from Utah Valley came in the 18th minute behind Nixan Jackson, who worked her way past the San Diego defense and launched the ball into the goal but was deflected by the goalie. Shortly after, Kate Booth raced to the loose ball and finished what her teammate started and gained the 1-0 lead.
“It means so much. Being able to continue playing and finishing out my college career in the state that I grew up in,” said Booth who is in her senior year. “I hope we make a deep run, I know this team has the potential to do so and I’m hoping to continue my playing career after, so we’ll see where that takes me.”
Just before halftime, Bailey Peterson was able to stretch their lead a bit further after a shot from Isabella Stewart was left near the goal.
The next 30 or so minutes was a mixture of UVU working to keep their lead, and even extend that, or UC San Diego eating into the chunk. And San Diego was able to get close, in the 70th minute.
“I was a little bit annoyed because it was definitely a goal I could have saved, but I knew that if we put our heads down, then we wouldn’t be getting anywhere,” said goalkeeper Madeleine Boucher. “Just keep pushing and then just move on and we got it.”
This might as well have been a wake-up call for the Wolverines and they kept their lead to win the Big West championship and secure their ticket into the NCAA Tournament.
It’s been an interesting season for this group. Before the in-conference play started they boasted a 4-4 record, but when playing against ranked teams, were able to come out on top.
This boded well for the team when it came time to play in-conference, especially since they’d won 14 consecutive matches counting tonight’s win.
This night has everyone feeling good as it is a time for celebrating, but something hearkens back to coach Lemay’s view: “We don’t feel like we arrived, we feel like: ‘okay now Monday, we get to see whose stuck in a rectangle with us for the next 90 minutes.’”
As of now, there is no official opponent for Utah Valley, on Monday, as coach Lemay said, it will be revealed at 2 pm MT on NCAA.com.
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