The road for the Long Beach women’s soccer NCAA tournament ended in a 3-0 loss to Santa Clara in the first round of NCAA Tournament Saturday at Stevens Stadium.
The 49ers (10-7-4) saw the Broncos (10-6-4) end their postseason for the second consecutive year and fourth time since 2010.
Luck wasn’t with the 49ers as they gave up a goal off a rebound in the 11th minute to the Broncos’ senior midfielder Jordan Jesolva, who netted her ninth goal of the season.
LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia and staff had hopes to go further in the tournament after having a schedule that featured tough teams like UCLA, USC, BYU and defending champions Penn State, but things didn’t go as planned.
Aside from giving up the early goal and the second half, the 49ers fought the rest of the 90 minutes to represent their Big West conference as champions.
In the second half, the 49ers allowed a pair of goals to Santa Clara’s freshman forward Maddie Gonzalez that put the game out of reach for LBSU.
The 49ers will now look toward training camp and get back to the drawing board with their eyes on another Big West Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.