Issue date: 10/5/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Andrew Nixon #3 Cori Shreve outruns #14 Wendy Funk. [Click to enlarge]

The Sacramento State women's soccer team defeated UC Santa Cruz at home on Sunday, beating them 2-0.

"It felt good to win, right before conference," said midfielder Katelin Hopping. Hopping said the team was largely successful due to the support from the fans. There was an attendance of 558 fans.

"More fans made us move, mentally focused, and boosted our confidence," said Hopping. "It made us feel like we were playing for them."

Randy Dedini, head coach for women's soccer, said the team went into the game prepared and focused.

"We didn't want to overlook them, we knew they had a tough mentality and dangerous players," said Dedini, "Pretty much knew we had to earn it."

The Hornets started off the game attacking the Banana Slugs field and taking shots at the Banana Slugs goal. In the 29th minute of the game Hopping received a pass from forward Elece McBride. Hopping then kicked ball sending it high into the net, giving the Hornets a lead of 1-0.

"When the ball left my foot I knew it was going in," said Hopping, "There was a lot of power and heart in that kick."

Dedini said he was excited to see Hopping's score, " Hopping's got one of the most powerful legs on the team. It was nice to see her score."

The Hornets continued their attack, and scored five minutes later taking a lead of 2-0. Forward Erin Tarantino passed it to McBride, who then tipped it to midfielder Jessica Gregory. Gregory then tapped the ball around goalie Eli Vermillion and scored.

"It was my first goal of the season, so it really pumped up the rest of the team," said Gregory.

The Hornets didn't score for the rest of the half. During the second half the Hornet's made numerous attempts to score, but weren't able to get past Banana Slug goalie Janneke Lang. Lang had a total of five saves.

"We missed a lot of great opportunities to score," said Dedini, " Still we played very good defense, and were able to win."

The Hornets now have a record of 6-4-1 for the season. They will compete in the Big Sky Conference on Friday. Their first game will be against North Arizona.

"To be successful in conference we got to maintain focus," said Dedini, "Don't want to look back or too ahead. Also we definitely don't want to take anything for granted."

Zaki Syed can be reached at zsyed@statehornet.com.

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