Sacramento State’s women’s soccer team played a strong game against the Pacific Tigers, staying ahead 2-1 before two quick goals by the Tigers in the final ten minutes brought the final score up 2-3.
Sac State’s freshman forward Teysha-Rey Spinney-Kuahuia scored the first goal for the Hornets off of an assist from freshman midfielder Ellie Farber halfway through the first period.
The second goal for the Hornets was earned by junior midfielder and captain Abigail Lopez barely a minute into the second half by intercepting a pass back to the Pacific goalkeeper.
Lopez’s celebration after her goal was extra emotional because the game marked the one year anniversary of her grandmother passing.
“It was just awesome to be able to score today,” Lopez said.
Freshman goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier played well with two saves in the first half and one in the second.
Sac State head coach Randy Dedini thought that the young Hornets did well against a good team.
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“We played really well for 75 minutes, but we’ve got to be able to see a game out,” Dedini said. “We just took our foot off the gas for that last ten minutes and they scored two goals.”
The pace of the game visibly sped up towards the end, with both teams making bad passes. The ball changed possession often and was moved quickly up and down the field.
“It was just our last ten minutes where everything started to get chaotic,” Palmatier said. “We weren’t super clean on things that we’re normally clean on.”
Dedini expressed frustration that the final two goals weren’t earned through a build up of clean passes that turned into a great goal. Instead, he said they were just two sloppy goals Pacific kicked forward and bounced in.
“The defensive mistakes in the back in the last ten minutes cost us the game,” Dedini said.
However, no game is a total loss and the Hornets’ performance showed just how much work they’ve put in this year. The team has come together well this season with 12 first-year collegiate athletes and two division one transfers.
“[They are] still a young team,” Dedini said. “It seems like every game we’re learning something new and taking it to the next game.”
Dedini said Spinney-Kuahuia, who scored the Hornet’s first goal, has been making an impact for the team all season.
“[Spinney-Kuahuia has] been a stud for us all year,” Dedini said. “She’s a freshman and she’s just getting better all the time.”
Spinney-Kuahuia is far from the only freshman making waves on this new team. Farber and Palmatier have played in every game this season.
Farber has racked up two shots on goal out of 15 shots total and one assist against Pacific. Palmatier has 28 saves with a career high of nine against Hawaii and two shutouts against Hawaii Pacific and UC Riverside.
“I’m really proud of the way that our team has come together thus far,” Palmatier said. “We’ve been working on a lot of different things and being able to see it translate onto the field has been really cool.”
Overall, the first few games of the 2023 season have gone a long way toward getting Sac State ready for Big Sky Conference play.
“Even though we lost we still feel very proud of what we did,” Lopez said.
The Hornets next game is against Saint Mary’s in Moraga, California Thursday at 4 p.m.
