Sacramento State Hornets (4-4-0) lost to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (4-3-2) by a final score of 2-0 this afternoon in front of a loud cheering crowd at Hornet Field.

Today’s game was a test for the Hornets before Big Sky Conference play begins next week.

It was a very tough and physical battle throughout the first half defensively for both teams, as players were constantly pushing each other to gain the upper advantage in regards to offensive possession of the ball. Today was a tough break for the women’s soccer team as they played a tremendous game defensively.

Despite the loss to the Gauchos, Sac State senior goalkeeper Kimberly Mata said she was very pleased with how her team performed defensively today.

“Being an underdog, I think that we did very well as far as our first half defense,” Mata said. “There was just a couple of late transitions and I think that’s what hurt us the most, but overall I think we played pretty well.”

Offensively, the Hornets were outshot by the Gauchos 5-1 in the first half of play and 15-6 overall in the game.

Sac State senior forward Kristen Bridges said that the team needs to do a better job of finishing opportunities.

“We had a few chances and a few [shots] on goals, but we need to work on burying those chances,” Bridges said. “The way I look at it is you either win games or you learn, so this is definitely a learning opportunity and it was a good test for next week heading into conference play.”

Mata finished the game with a total of three saves for the Hornets and Gauchos junior goalkeeper Beth Ritter finished the game with three as well.

Sac State coach Randy Dedini said that his team’s effort was there in both halves, but thought that his team was feeling a little bit fatigued in the second half of play against UC Santa Barbara.

“That’s a good team and we’re missing some key players, I thought we put together a pretty good effort, it seemed like in the second half we started getting tired,” Dedini said. “We had a couple of little mistakes and they capitalized [on those].”

Overall, Dedini said he wasn’t discouraged by the way his team performed this afternoon, in spite of the loss against the Gauchos.

“Our back line was really solid,” Dedini said. “I thought Kimmy, our goalkeeper, played really well but the key players that we’re missing are in the midfield, so we lacked a little bit of creativity moving forward with the ball.”

For the Gauchos, freshman midfielder Chace Schornstein scored the game’s first goal, assisted by a pass from freshman defender Kate Shoemaker to the top of the box and Schornstein’s shot was deflected into the goal at 50:06.

UCSB sophomore center midfielder Sara Feder scored from a short cross and finished in front of the goal to put the Gauchos up late 2-0 at 80:11.

Up next for the Hornets, before conference play begins, they will play Sunday against Fresno State at 6 p.m.