After tasting victory through penalties against Idaho in the 2024 Big Sky championship, Sacramento State women’s soccer looked to stay undefeated in conference play as they took on the Vandals once again Thursday.
The first half of the championship rematch featured a total of nine shots between the two teams. The best chance of the half came from Hornet junior forward Tea Reyes in the 42nd minute.
A cross inside of the box from junior forward Micaela Romo found Reyes. Reyes took a shot on goal, forcing the keeper to leap up and make a one-handed save. After Reyes’ attempt, the two teams went into half time at 0-0.
After facing constant pressure from the Vandals early in the second half, redshirt junior defender Bri Prado was caught in a trap in her team’s half and had nowhere to go but backwards. Running out of space, Prado was stripped of the ball by Idaho redshirt sophomore Calli Chiarelli inside the Hornets’ half.
Chiarelli found junior forward Georgia Whitehead unmarked inside of the Hornets’ box. Whitehead took a one-touch shot straight off of the ground and slid the ball into the bottom right corner for a Vandals 1-0 lead in the 51st minute.
Calli picks the pocket and finds Georgia streaking through middle for the goal! #GoVandals pic.twitter.com/25FhQZARdm
— Idaho Vandals Soccer (@Vandal_Soccer) October 2, 2025
“She tried to dribble it out, and she got it taken from her, so that has to be a learning experience for us,” head coach Randy Dedini said. “She has to play her goalkeeper there so we can play it out.”
The Vandals kept the momentum on their side after the goal, keeping the pressure on the trailing Hornets.
A 59th minute corner from Vandals sophomore forward Bella Gissendanner found Whitehead again, who headed it high and over the Hornet defenders on the backline to extend their lead to 2-0.
ANOTHER ONE FOR GEORGIA!
Gissendanner finds Whitehead on the corner for the header goal!
Vandals up 2-0!#GoVandals pic.twitter.com/6Gn67D43x0
— Idaho Vandals Soccer (@Vandal_Soccer) October 2, 2025
The deficit did not discourage Sac State. The Hornets pushed forward to reach a total of 16 shots throughout the game but were still unable to threaten the Vandals’ goal.
“We took too many shots from outside the 18,” Dedini said. “We can drive and get inside the 18 and create higher percentage chances.”
The Vandals held on to the 2-0 lead through the final whistle, handing Sac State their first defeat in Big Sky Conference play.
“We have to do a better job at hustling to get into the attacking third as a team and to also provide different options on the attack,” Reyes said. “I also think we have to clean up some of the different fundamentals in the attacking third in the next couple days of practice.”
Reyes took five of the 16 shots that the Hornets had on the Vandals’ goal. Redshirt sophomore Candace Ching added five shots for the Hornets.
The Hornets had more than double the Vandals’ seven shots, but execution and ruthlessness from the Vandals saw them put the ball in the back of the net instead.
“We were not as clean as we needed to be, and when we had our opportunities we were not able to put them away,” redshirt junior goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier said. “So we were on our heels for the majority of the second half, and we couldn’t find our opportunities to switch the game around.”
The loss drops the Hornets’ season record to 5-7-1 and their conference record to 1-1-1. The Hornets will look to improve on Thursday’s loss with another home game on Sunday, Oct. 5 against Eastern Washington at 1 p.m.
“We have to look forward to Sunday, we can’t dwell on this one for too long,” Dedini said. “We got to look at the film and fix what we can but we just sit and mope about it because we got to get up for Sunday and get some points out of this weekend.”
