The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
With the regular season inching closer to its conclusion, the Long Beach State women’s soccer team headed into its contest against Cal Poly looking for a win that would push the Beach just ahead of the Mustangs in the Big West Standings.
For 19 minutes on Thursday night, the Beach had no issues handling Cal Poly’s aggressive attack. However, in the 20th minute Ava Mirelez crossed the ball into the box and Ava Dougherty found herself alone and chipped a shot over Aurora Schuck to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
“Disappointing goal that we gave up,” Long Beach State coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “We have players around there and so the girl made a good play, but it seemed like it was a one in a 100.
For the remainder of the game, the Beach went on the attack but weren’t able to find the equalizer as they fell to Cal Poly 1-0 at George Allen Field.
While the Beach sits five points behind Cal Poly with the loss, LBSU finishes Big West play with three of the top four team in the standings – starting on Sunday when they host UC Santa Barbara at noon.
“You just have to bounce back,” Ingrassia said about what the team needs to do moving forward. “You’ve got to recover. We’ve got to bounce back. We got a game on Sunday here. We got to get it.”
Coming out of the half, the Beach applied the pressure and got a good chance in the 58th minute when Radisson Banks launched a shot but it was just off the mark off the goal.
A couple minutes later Cherrie Cox lined up a shot, but Shannon Porubski came up with the save.
After playing on their back foot early in the first half, the Beach kept the pressure on Cal Poly and Banks got another opportunity, but Porubski came up with another save as another opportunity came up empty.
The Beach (5-6-3, 2-2-2) had two corner kicks in the 76th and 77th minute but weren’t able to convert an opportunity.
“Unfortunately we fought the whole entire second half and couldn’t find one,” Ingrassia said.
