By Gerardo Gonzalez (@GerardoG209) – Soccer Beat Reporter
San Jose State women’s soccer (3-4-4, 2-1-1 MW) defeated UNLV (3-8-1, 1-2-1 MW) 1-0 on Sunday morning.
The Spartans were on a quest to get their second conference win at home, as they started the match well balanced from both ends. Creating chances and defending well. However, the Rebels were coming off a win against Fresno State last Thursday.
The first 45 minutes of the match were tightly contested as both teams battled in the midfield and struggled to find opportunities. We saw only two saves from each sides’ keeper and three corner kicks in total.
If either side wanted to take the lead, they were going to need to make some changes in the second half.
It wasn’t until the 73rd minute that senior midfielder Kiana Miyazato broke the deadlock on a one-on-one breakaway as she curled a shot past the goalkeeper.
“It feels great and it’s nice to come back and be able to put work in for the team and finish the opportunity that I got,” said Miyazato.
This was Miyazato’s first game back with the team after an injury sidelined her for a couple of games.
SJSU women’s soccer head coach Tina Estrada in particular was happy about how she returned. “It was big for us to get Kiana back… and obviously made her stamp on the game with the winning goal,” said Estrada, via the SJSU women’s soccer Twitter account:
In the final minutes of the game, UNLV started to apply pressure but they lacked efficiency in this game. Freshman goalkeeper Bente Pernot was able to record her second clean sheet, with two important saves in the first half.
“It feels awesome to get another clean sheet but in reality, it’s not really my clean sheet, it’s the whole team. So I couldn’t do it without them,” said Pernot after the game.
With this win now in the books, SJSU women’s soccer will travel to San Diego State facing off at Snapdragon Stadium on Oct. 6 with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.