State #18 Women's Soccer Rallies For Tie With #3 Long Beach

After watching a 5-game win streak stopped in a tough 1-0 loss at rival Mt. San Antonio on Oct. 24, the Pasadena City College women's soccer team became just the second team this season to prevent Long Beach City from a victory. The state #18 Lancers came back from a pair of 1-goal deficits to earn a 2-2 road tie on Tuesday.

PCC (11-5-1 overall) stopped the Vikings (14-1-1) 12-game winning streak and joined Chaffey as the only two colleges to not lose to Long Beach. Pasadena is 4-1-1 in South Coast Conference play, second place behind #15-ranked Mt. San Antonio (6-0) in the North Division while Long Beach is 6-0-1, already clinching the South Division championship. 

The tie, the first of the season for either team, began with Long Beach scoring an early goal in the seventh minute. Five minutes before halftime, Raylyn Laney dribbled down the sideline then slotted the ball to the top of the 18-yard box as Iris Pollard ripped in her third goal of the season. 

Long Beach responded just three minutes later to take a 2-1 lead into the second half. In the 63rd minute, the Lancers struck again as Isabella Nersesyan slid a pass to Alexandra Lopez, who continued a torrid offensive streak by netting her 11th goal that proved to be the game-tying tally. Lopez had a 4-game goal scoring streak snapped in the loss to Mt. SAC, but in the month of October has compiled six goals and four assists for 16 points over seven games. 

Lopez is fourth in the entire, 9-team SCC with 26 points while Nerseyan is second in assists with seven. 

Goalie Gaioi Mahe made seven saves.

Against Mt. SAC, the Mounties avenged last year's loss to PCC in the SCC Tournament Championship game as Maddison Shaw intercepted a clearance pass and scored two minutes before halftime. In the second half, Nerseyan took a free kick and Pollard finished a set piece, but the Lancers were called for offsides negating a tying goal.

Coach Terryn Soelberg's Lancers are currently #8 in the all-important, SoCal RPI ratings that determine playoff seedings. The team's tie v. Long Beach was the first for the program since last year's Round 2, Southern California Regional when PCC tied LA Pierce 0-0, but then advanced on penalty kicks. Pasadena finished as a regional finalist. 

On Halloween night, PCC celebrates its sophomores prior to a SCC contest v. Compton. Game time is 6:30 p.m. at Robinson Stadium.