Bronco Women's Soccer Falls to No. 23 Cal 1-0

BERKELEY, Calif. – In its final nonconference game of the regular season, No. 19 Santa Clara women's soccer fell Thursday afternoon to No. 23 Cal, 1-0. The Bears scored the only goal of midway through the second half.

Dani Weatherholt led the Broncos (9-5-0) with a pair of shots. Andi Tostanoski picked up five saves. The Bears (10-3-2) got their goal from Samantha Witteman and Emily Boyd made three saves.

"We had a great team effort today and were disciplined defensively," said Santa Clara head coach
Jerry Smith. "It took a phenomenal goal to score on us. When you have two ranked teams playing each other it's going to be a big goal or a big save and Cal had both today. We had the best chance when Jenna [Roering] was one-on-one with their goalkeeper but she came up huge with the stop. We didn't create as many chances as I would have liked but we possessed the ball well. We also got a lot of players into the game, including Jordan Jesolva who played 15 minutes in her first action in several games. That was the plan all along so that she could get over any mental hurdles and be ready for our important conference game at Portland on Sunday."

In the 34th minute Tostanoski made an incredible save to keep the game scoreless. She left her line to stop a pass but Arielle Shipp got a head on the ball and floated it over the goalkeeper. Tostanoski turned around and raced back to make a scoop save just before the ball crossed the line.

Jenna Roering almost broke through for Santa Clara in the 55th minute. Roering took a through ball and was one on one with the goalkeeper but her shot went straight at the keeper for the save.

Witteman used a beautiful finish in the 62nd to give Cal the winning goal. Shipp sent a pass through to the left side of the box that was gathered by Witteman. After she took a touch and a dribble, she curled a ball into the upper-right corner of the net to make it 1-0.

With under 30 seconds remaining in the match, Julie Vass blasted a shot from just outside the box in a crowd of defenders. Boyd made the stop and got to the rebound before a Bronco could get there.

Santa Clara returns to the field Sunday, Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. when it travels to West Coast Conference rival Portland. The game will be live on ESPNU and WatchESPN.com.