DAVIS, Calif. - Thanks to second-half goals from Celina Minissian and Rachel Ahr, UC Davis collected its seventh victory in a season opener since joining the Big West Conference in 2007 by defeating Sonoma State, in Friday’s non-conference match at Aggie Soccer Field, by a 2-1 score.

The Aggies will end their inaugural weekend of the 2016 season on Sunday with a neutral-site contest against Florida Gulf Coast University, and enter that match with a 1-0 record. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Negoesco Stadium, located at the University of San Francisco.

“We played very well in the first half, but just made an unfortunate mistake. In the second half, we started playing with numbers (in Sonoma State’s half of the field), and were more strategic with our positioning,” said UC Davis head coach Twila Kaufman.

That unfortunate play took place in the fifth minute when Sonoma State intercepted a pass on what initially looked like a UC Davis counterattack. Once Sarah Lindborg gained possession, an instant 1v1 scoring opportunity took place since she trailed the play and was the last Seawolf to exit the Aggies’ third of the field.

Lindborg’s inaugural touch on the ball was strong, giving UC Davis netminder Alexis Smith a chance to make a play on the ball and kick it to safety. Lindborg barely beat Smith to the ball, and was able to flick it over a sliding goalkeeper to score the first goal of the day.

Sonoma State’s lead disappeared in the 52nd minute on a brilliant shot from Minissian. By spinning around her defender 10 yards outside the penalty area, she created enough space to blast a shot that sailed inside the near post, past a diving SSU goalkeeper. Even though Allison Hadidian made a play on the ball, Minissian’s blast easily found the back of the net.

From the start of the second half, the Seawolves struggled to contain UC Davis’ relentless attack. In addition to drawing all three of their corners throughout the final 45 minutes of action, the Aggies also outshot Sonoma State 8-0 during that block of time.

Ahr recorded one of those shots, and her first goal of the season when she capitalized on a UC Davis penalty kick opportunity four minutes after Minissian netted the equalizer.

Once play resumed after the Aggies drew even, action immediately returned in front of Sonoma State’s goal. After receiving the ball just inside the left-hand corner of the penalty area, Crystal Crump backed her defender into the box another yard before spinning around to create a scoring lane. That sudden shift caught both SSU defenders who were shadowing Crump off-guard. Instead of making a play on the ball, a defender caught Crump’s ankles instead. Once Crump hit the turf, the referee had no choice but to issue a yellow card to Sonoma State and a penalty kick to UC Davis.

Combined with its attempts in the first half, UC Davis outshot Sonoma State by a 13-3 margin, and forced both opposing goalkeepers to make a combined four saves. By comparison, Smith did not record a save the entire match, and rarely needed to leave her net to make a play after Sonoma State struck early in the afternoon.

Minissian and Nicole Smolinski led UC Davis with three shots each; Minissian also recorded two of the Aggies’ six shots on goal.

Friday’s season opener marked the first head-to-head meeting since the 2003 season, and the first at Aggie Soccer Field since Sept. 5, 2001. 

Live stats for the inaugural match in program history against Florida Gulf Coast are available at UCDavisAggies.com.

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