SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Women's Soccer team scored two second half goals to defeat Trinity Western in their opening exhibition of the season Monday night. Olivia Howard and Chayse You found the back of the net for the Gauchos.

The first half was filled with a lot of possession oriented attacks but not a lot of shots. The Gauchos had just one shot in the period which did not find the target while Trinity Western had three shots and one on target.

In the 27th minutes Maddie Buckley held strong in net, saving the Spartans shot to keep the game knotted at zeros. Both teams went up and down the field looking for scoring opportunities but none would come as the teams went to halftime knotted at nil-nil.

An entire new 11 started the second half for the Gauchos and their fortune around the net changed rapidly. After staving off two shots by the Spartans, the Gauchos got on the board with the help from Olivia Howard. Howard took a shot and found the back of the net to put the Gauchos up 1-0 in the 53rd minute of the match.

The Gauchos kept the momentum and pressure up and in the 78th minute found the back of the goal again. Ava Dermott ripped a shot that was saved by a stretched out goalkeeper. Following the save the ball found the foot of Chayse Yu who buried her chance and put the Gauchos up 2-0.

UC Santa Barbara would hold on to win the match down the stretch. Trinity Western saw a couple of good scoring chances get shut down by Morgan Lucich in goal. Lucich made back-to-back saves in the 86th and 87th minute to preserve the shutout and give the Gauchos a win in the fixture.

UP NEXT
The Gauchos will host LMU on Thursday, Aug. 15 for their first official match of the regular season. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m. For those unable to attend the match will be streamed through ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.