A second-half penalty kick from Big West Offensive Player of the Year Scarlett Camberos was the difference in a foggy Thursday night Big West semifinal women’s soccer rematch between the No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara women’s soccer team and No. 1 UC Irvine.
Cambero’s PK gave the Anteaters a 1-0 win and ended the Gauchos’ season.
After a scoreless opening 45 minutes, Camberos found herself being led into space behind the Gaucho defense less than 20 seconds into the second half. She was tripped up on the edge of the box, leading to a yellow card for Gaucho goalkeeper Evann Smith and a trip to the penalty spot.
Camberos calmly placed her shot into the right side of the net, just beating Smith to score her conference-leading 13th goal of the season.
Despite nearly matching the Anteaters’ 15 shots with 14 of their own, the Gauchos were unable to find an equalizer as they pushed numbers forward the rest of the way.
Smith did a great job defending the goal against the highest scoring team in the conference, racking up six saves, two shy of a season-high.
The loss ends a solid run in the conference for the Gauchos, who won four of their last six regular season games to claim the No. 4 seed and earn their third consecutive Big West Tournament berth.