Sacramento State women’s soccer (5-4-0) received its second road win of the 2014 season as they defeated Fresno State (1-8-0) by a final score of 2-1 Sunday night at Bulldog Stadium.

It was a difference of two halves and key halftime adjustments that essentially made the difference for the Hornets women as the team managed to score two goals in the second half to secure the victory.

Sac State’s offense was powered by sophomore midfielder Lydia Bowman, who engineered her first goal of the season and by freshman forward Kylee Smith who also scored her first career goal as a Hornet.  

Coach Randy Dedini said his team played a little slow in the first half, but picked up the pace in the second half with a strong performance.

“It was really a tale of two halves, in the first half we were very impatient with the ball,” Dedini said. “In the second half, we just talked to [the players] about playing better soccer, and keeping the ball on the ground. We had multiple scoring chances and we ended up finishing the goal on the penalty kick.”  

Sac State sophomore forward Adaurie Dayak was involved in a hard foul by a Bulldog defender as both players were attacking the ball. She was then pushed to the ground by that same defender in the goal box which led to a penalty kick for Bowman.

Bowman scored the Hornets first goal of the game via penalty kick in the 51st minute.

“I was just really happy that we tied it up and it felt good,” Bowman said. “It feels really nice to win on the road and to have that confidence going into next weekend, so it was definitely a big win.”

Smith, like Bowman, said she was also excited about scoring her first goal of the season and added that she feels prepared for the upcoming conference games. Bowman assisted on Smith’s goal in the 77th minute giving the Hornets a late 2-1 lead.

“It was my first goal ever, but honestly I was beyond excited and I was happy to celebrate with my teammates,” Smith said. “I’m really proud of all of them, we all worked really hard, and I finally got one.”

It was another busy game for Sac State senior goalkeeper Kimberly Mata as she had another big outing. Mata finished with a total of eight saves, as Bulldog players were scrambling to tie the game late in the second half.  

Tonight’s game against Fresno State was the last of non-conference play for the Hornets as they head into conference for a stretch of 10 games to end their 2014 schedule.  

The next two games for the Hornets will be contested on the road as they visit Southern Utah on Friday and Northern Arizona one week from today.