ARCATA, Calif. – Humboldt State women's soccer hopes to show continued improvement this weekend on the road against Stanislaus State and Cal State East Bay. The Lumberjacks face the Warriors Friday at 7 p.m. and Pioneers Saturday at 2 p.m.
A weekend split against Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona gave HSU a 2-5 overall mark and 1-1 record in conference play.
"I think we have a lot of positive momentum," said HSU head coach
Paul Karver. "We scored four goals in a weekend, and I can't think of the last time we did that. There were a lot of breakout performances that don't show up on the stat sheet, so we want to build on those. I think we need to work on our production a little bit. We have to work on finding calm in frantic moments, and that is something that comes with developing leadership."
On the offensive side, midfielder
Alex Jenkins scored two goals and had an assist in Friday's win over the Coyotes. Fellow midfielder
Bridget Daley provided an offensive boost as she notched her second goal of the season Sunday against Pomona. On the defensive side, goalie
Alex Dumas finished with a season-high nine saves in the team's loss to the Broncos.
The Warriors have dropped back-to-back conference matches, and they are 5-2 overall and 0-2 in the CCAA. Forward Jade Poon is one of the conference's top offensive players and leads Stanislaus State with three goals and three assists.
"Stanislaus is all about speed, all about getting the ball wide, one-versus-one as much as they can," said Karver. "They are a very good team that is well-coached. It is a program with a strong history, so we expect that game to be a very big challenge for us."
Cal State East Bay has lost four straight heading into its Friday game against Sonoma State. Megan Ravenscroft, led the Pioneers (1-4-2, 0-2 CCAA) with seven goals last season and is the team's No. 1 scorer in 2016.
"Ravenscroft is phenomenal," said Karver. "We're going to have to find a way to neutralize her. We are going to have to do a little bit of a better job of managing a quality, high-level player versus East Bay."
