The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
Long Beach State women’s soccer finished its preseason with a gritty 1-1 draw against visiting Utah Valley on Sunday at George Allen Field.
“That is a very tough team we faced,” LBSU coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “Utah Valley put in three goals against USC on Thursday and USC is a top ten team. They are a good squad, and we respect them.”
LBSU was threatening early and often while getting off 16 shots, nine on target, and a few offside flags cut out opportunities. Then Utah Valley struck in the 23rd minute off a free kick from Elle Young that
was initially turned away by goalkeeper Morgan Houston-Shepard. Utah Valley’s Heather Stainbrook would pounce on the rebound and put in the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Wolverines’ would not hold on the lead for long, as LBSU equalized in the 28th minute. Junior midfielder Makayla Demelo would set up freshman forward Summer Laskey, who then placed a beautiful cross for sophomore forward Cherrie Cox to hammer it home.
The Beach would continue to press, and the Wolverines would return a late rally themselves, but they went to halftime even.
The second half would be a similar story for the Beach, as they had opportunities, yet they could not finish either due to a miss or Utah Valley’s goalkeeper CJ Graham making the save. The Beach had eight corners in the game, five coming in the second half, compared to Utah Valley’s one.
Utah Valley looked to breakthrough in the 78th minute with a screamer from Elle Young, but Standifer would deflect it for the biggest of her four saves. Each LBSU goalkeeper played a half.
The final opportunity came in the final fifteen seconds with a corner kick by LBSU freshman Brooklyn Antonnuci trying to find senior leader Elysia Laramie on the back post. Laramie’s header attempt would hit the outside netting.
“At home we would like to win it, but if you can’t win it, make sure you don’t lose it.We had a great preseason. [Utah Valley] was a tough, very good opponent to get us ready for conference,” Ingrassia said.
LBSU hosts UC Irvine on September 14 at 7 p.m.for the Black and Blue Rivalry and their Big West Conference opener.
