Lillemae and Blohowiak stand out in downing WAC-leading CBU
In the start of the final homestand of the season, UTRGV women’s soccer (8-4-2, 5-4-1) scores a late goal to knock off California Baptist University (9-2-2, 7-2-1) Thursday night at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
On Tuesday, in a news conference via Zoom leading up to the game, UTRGV Head Coach Glad Bugariu highlighted the importance of the win towards seeding in conference playoffs as the regular season begins to wind down.
“They’re the best team we’ll face all season,” Bugariu said. “It’s going to require a good effort from us, we know what’s at stake, that a win here will really put us in an excellent position for playoffs and ultimately that’s our goal, the conference playoffs so we could win the conference championship.”
Yet this task would be easier said than done as the Lancers sit atop of the conference and coming into the match were outscoring opponents 35-7 which included two 7-0 victories against Chicago State earlier this month.
In addition, the Vaqueros would be without their No.1 goalkeeper in junior Maile Lunardi, serving a red card suspension from last week’s 0-3 defeat against Grand Canyon University, as they look to neutralize Lancer senior forward Rola Badawiya who has netted seven goals on the season, second-best in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
In the first half, the UTRGV backline would face continuous pressure as the Lancers took 10 shots, four on goal but freshman goalkeeper Macie Blohowiak, making her first career start, would have a strong presence in goal to keep the game knotted at zero.
The Vaqueros controlled the possession in the second half and began to chip away at the Lancer defense with shot after shot.
Yet, it wasn’t until the 84th minute when UTRGV finally broke through and put the ball in the back of the net when freshman Mari Liis Lillemae scored her first-career goal off an assist from junior forward Emily Zapata from the junior defender Shi’ Anne Swift corner.
The Lancers would frantically try to even up the score in the closing seconds but Blohowiak would jump off her line, swallowing up the ball to ensure three points for the Vaqueros.
Blohowiak would finish the game with six saves and in a postgame news conference Bugariu would praise her performance between the sticks.
“I had no doubt Macie would do a really good job. She is a very good goalkeeper; she’s trained hard and when her moment came, she stepped up,” Bugariu said.
Although Lillemae’s and Blohowiak’s performances stood out, the entire team deserved praise according to Bugariu.
“It was an excellent team victory. Every player contributed in a spectacular fashion. In the second half we had a better team and dominated completely,” Bugariu said.
Now headed into their final home game of the season, Saturday at noon, Bugariu highlighted the distinct advantage the team holds against a vengeance-seeking Lancer squad.
“The pressure is all on [CBU], they lose, they lose [the regular season] title. They’ll have to face the heat; they’ll have to face a very good team. Ultimately the pressure is on them. We are very confident we’ll do a very good job on Saturday,” Bugariu said.
The Lancers now drop to second in the WAC standings, trailing defending champions Seattle U by one point and the Vaqueros widen their lead against Grand Canyon University, to four points, for the fourth and final spot in the conference playoffs.
Twitter: @Radio_Rubio
