By Sandeep Chandok (@sandeepchandok):
The 2017 home opener at the new Spartan Soccer Complex didn’t end in the Spartans favor, as they suffered a 1-0 loss at the feet of UC Santa Barbara on Sunday afternoon.
The Gauchos struck gold less than 150 seconds into the game when senior forward Amanda Ball netted her third goal in two games.
Sunday’s loss followed an emotional 2-1 letdown on Friday against crosstown rival Santa Clara University in which SJSU allowed a goal in the 87th minute.
“Physically, I felt like we were a little tired,” said junior forward Dariell Franklin postgame, trying to catch her breath. “We have a lot of new players and they’re not use to playing two games in one weekend.”
SJSU outshot UCSB 8-3 in the second half and 11-9 for the game, but only three of the Spartan shots were on target compared to five for the Gauchos.
“We need to build off the attacking part of things,” said head coach Lauren Hanson of her team’s offensive struggles. “We need to play more.”
Hanson added that defensively, she feels her team is doing well through its first two games, although SJSU gave up seven corner kicks to UCSB and only had one itself.
Despite the winless weekend, Franklin knows what SJSU needs to do to turn things around in the coming weeks.
“We should look back at the past two games we played, individually and as a team, put it together this week in training and hopefully come out and win our next couple games,” Franklin said.
The Spartans’ next match is Friday against Eastern Washington at 1:30 p.m at the Spartan Soccer Complex.
