Two was the magic number over the weekend for Fresno State athletics.
The soccer team won its first two games of the season, beating Portland State and UC Davis. Volleyball’s perfect 5-0 record was abolished after losing two matches in the Bulldog Showdown to DePaul and Portland.
Soccer (2-3) secured its first win after being down 2-0 to Portland State (0-4) in the first period. The ‘Dogs came back in the second half to tie the game 2-2 before the Vikings scored their third and final goal of the match
Junior forward Myra Delgadillo gave the ‘Dogs the edge late in the second half to claim the match 4-3. The winning goal was Delgadillo’s third of the season.
Head coach Brian Zwaschka said, “With the support of a really solid bench, we got our bearings and regrouped at halftime and made sure that we played with the approach that was going to get us back in the game.”
The ‘Dogs continued their win streak in a tough match against UC Davis (2-3-1), defeating the Aggies 1-0. Freshman forward Julia Glaser scored Fresno State’s goal with 1:27 left in the game to capture its second-straight victory.
Glaser’s second goal of the season in the 89th minute marks the first time in the program’s 22-year history that back-to-back games were won with goals scored in the final two minutes of regulation.
The Mountain West Conference selected Glaser as the Offensive Player of the Week.
“We are very proud of Julia for her big part in our weekend results,” Zwaschka said. “We had another strong performance from our bench, which helped with the overall game management, and our defensive focus was tremendous.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Nicole Theroux grabbed a career-high 11 saves to land her first career shutout.
Volleyball (5-2) saw its undefeated record come to an end over the weekend as it fell to DePaul (3-3) 3-1 in the Bulldog Showdown, despite senior Aleisha Coates’ 14 kills and Maggie Eppright’s nine digs. Set scores were 19-25, 25-16, 19-25, 21-25.
“We started to force things and try to do things that are just not natural to us. So, unfortunately, that made us miss opportunities, and DePaul capitalized,” head coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell said after the team’s first loss of the season.
In the final match of the tournament, Portland (3-3) swept the Bulldogs. Set scores were 25-14, 25-17, 25-20.
The Pilots came out strong after losing their first two games of the Bulldog Showdown, out-hitting the ‘Dogs .357 to -.062. Portland led nearly the whole game with the largest margin being 13 points ahead of Fresno State in the first set.
Fresno State took its first lead of the match in the third set 6-2, but Portland fought to regain the lead at 13-9. Despite coming within one point of the Pilots at 13-12 with key block assists by Haile Watson and Brielle Hefner, the Bulldogs were not able to recover, never getting back within three points.
Netherby-Sewell said of the Pilot’s sweep: “We have had a great start, but that was a rough way to finish our first home weekend. We will look for more court leadership in the upcoming weeks so we can handle adversity a little better.”
Senior libero Eppright was named to the 2016 Bulldog Showdown All-Tournament Team.
Soccer hosts Pacific (0-4) at home on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7p.m. in hopes of extending its win streak.
Volleyball returns to the court next weekend at the Incarnate Word Invitational in San Antonio to take on Texas Southern (2-5) at noon on Friday, Sept. 9.
