SANTA BARBARA, Calif.- The UC Santa Barbara Women's Soccer team battled the full 90 minutes on Sunday night at Harder Stadium against the Rainbow Wahine. A goal from Olivia Howard put Santa Barbara on the board first, but the Gauchos could not hold the lead as Hawai'i came back with two goals in the second half. 

FROM HEAD COACH PAUL STUMPF
On senior night and the seven graduating student-athletes: "They are going out into the world prepared to deal with quite a lot in life," said Stumpf. "What they've brought is a whole lot of commitment to this program, a whole lot of effort. We will be losing a group of very experienced college soccer players. We will miss them all greatly but it's also a great sense of pride for us that they're moving on, all of them are going to graduate and go on to great things in this world."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams settled into the match trying to find offensive rhythm for the first 20 minutes. That is until Sofie Rodriguez got a foot on the ball. She powered all the way down the pitch to a wide-open Devin Greer. Greer battled with two Wahine defenders to find a window to Olivia Howard at the top of the box. Howard placed the ball in the bottom left corner of the net past the diving Hawai'i goalkeeper to put the Gauchos up 1-0 in the 20th minute. 

The Howard goal gave the Gauchos offensive momentum as they followed up with two more shots by Zoe Franks and O'Callaghan Liu. As Hawai'i looked to find the back of the net, a shot by the Wahine in the 30th minute gave Sabrina Hinz her first save of the night in goal.

The pressure did not stop from the Blue and Gold. Chayse Yu had her first good look of the night with a shot that appeared to almost sail through the goalkeeper's hands, but it was unable to find the back of the net. 

Hawai'i put on the pressure in the last 10 minutes of the first half but the Gauchos defense shut down the attack to head into the break up 1-0.

Both teams exchanged shots to kick off the second half. Chayse Yu took her third shot on goal in the 53rd minute but found the hands of Hawai'i's goalkeeper. The Wahine quickly took control back with a shot in the 68th minute that ricocheted from Hinz' hands back to offense. The ball was then powered to the back of the net by Hawai'i to tie up the match. 

As both teams vied for the win, the Gauchos kept firing shots at the Wahine who blocked back-to-back shots from Yu and Ava Jarolimek in the 74th minute. A free kick awarded to Hawai'i in the 82nd minute found the Wahine striker in the box who took the ball to the net with a header for a 2-1 lead. 

Santa Barbara did everything in their power to find an equalizing goal in the final minutes. The final shot sequence of the night from the Gauchos saw a shot from Emma Corcoran saved off the foot of the Wahine defense. The ball was carried back out to Chayse Yu who had a shot on target. The sailing ball was saved by the Wahine goalkeeper at the last second to maintain their 2-1 lead to the final whistle. 

UP NEXT
The Gauchos finish the regular season 4-2-4 in The Big West. With 16 points in the standings, they will await their seeding following the final Big West matchups on Thursday with the possibility of playing a Big West Championship match as early as Sunday, Nov. 3.