Sophomore, Lydia Anderson, has become much more aggressive offensively during conference play, but the Mustangs will need increased efficiency from other offensive players if the conference tournament is still a goal. By Owen Main

The Big West Women’s Soccer Tournament will be at Alex G. Spanos Stadium in San Luis Obispo this season. If Cal Poly wants to be a participant, they’re going to have to start playing a lot better.

After winning their conference opener on the road last week in Long Beach, Alex Crozier’s defending conference regular season champs have dropped two straight matches at home — the latest to UC Davis on Friday night.

In that match, the Mustangs out-shot the Aggies 15-5, including a 13-3 advantage in shots-on-goal. It didn’t matter though, as two of Davis’ three shots on goal found the back of the net.

Cal Poly has the conference’s reigning player of the year and a top goal scorer in Elise Krieghoff, but the junior hasn’t found a way to get into the score book in the first three conference games. Teams are definitely keying on Krieghoff in the middle — sending three defenders at her sometimes. The Mustangs are also seeing teams with faster, stronger outside defenders who are disrupting service to Krieghoff from the likes of Megan Abutin and Sara Lancaster.

It will be intriguing to see whether the Mustangs might have to find some more varied movement if they want to get back on a winning track and fight their way back into contention, or if the results are abberations and will start to fall more in-line with the shot numbers, which generally favor Krieghoff and Cal Poly.

One important player who has been absent of late is Tracy Hong. The senior outside defender has a knack for linking through the midfield or directly to Cal Poly’s attackers and is known to sometimes take it herself up the wing.

Whatever the reason, Cal Poly has struggled to find their attackers in the same dangerous places they found them during the preseason. There are only eight conference games for each team in the Big West, so every match is crucial. Cal Poly hosts Hawai’i on Sunday and three points seems like a must. Anything less, and the road to a spot in the Big West Tournament really begins to become treacherous.

Sunday schedule:

Time: Sunday, Noon Pacific,

Opponent: Hawai’i

Watch the game online here. 

Photos by Owen Main

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