CMS Women's Soccer Shuts Out Third Straight Foe, Plays to Scoreless Tie at UC Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - Sadie Brown had six saves to pick up her third straight shutout this week, as the CMS women's soccer team battled to a 0-0 road tie at UC Santa Cruz on Sunday.

With the tie, CMS now stands at 5-4-3 on the season, while UC Santa Cruz moves to 5-2-2. 

Playing a non-conference game on its second game of back-to-back days, after defeating Caltech yesterday 2-0, the Athenas reduced the minutes of many of its key players. Starting center back Annie McKinley didn't play, and fellow starting defenders Olivia Tuffli (20 minutes) and Emma Fogg (21 minutes) came off the bench and saw their action reduced, as did starting midfielders Caelyn Smith (20 minutes), Nicole Oberlag (24 minutes), Riley Zitar (24 minutes) and Kaitlyn Helfirch (29 minutes). 

CMS used its depth to its advantage, though, and still came away with the draw, outshooting the Banana Slugs 11-10 and having a 6-0 edge in corners. Brown was busy early with three saves in the first 16 minutes, before the Athenas settled in. CMS had a 9-4 edge in shots in the second half, but Alyssa Diaz-Ticker had three saves to match Brown in the shutout department. 

Brown did have one quick flurry in the second half, when she was called on to make two saves in the 61st minute, but CMS had the final five shot attempts after that, including four in the final minute, one of which came off a corner kick when Diaz-Tucker stopped a game-winning attempt from Ivy Doran. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday when it travels to Cal Lutheran for a key non-conference game. The Athenas stand 3-1-2 in league play, while the Regals are 3-1-1.