The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2026-27 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
Head coach Mauricio Ingrassia and the Long Beach State women’s soccer team went through just about every emotion possible throughout Wednesday’s matchup against CSUN, with the final one being frustration.
In a match that the Beach trailed one-nil at halftime, Long Beach State (6-2-4) battled back during a 15-minute stretch to start the second half that saw four total goals between the two teams. The fourth and final goal of that stretch came from Kylie Perez, who lofted a shot up and over the goalkeeper to give Long Beach its first lead in the 62nd minute, but the lead wouldn’t last for long.
CSUN (3-5-4) found the equalizer on a penalty kick from Jana Akins after a foul inside the box in the 77th minute before Lia Peterson scored the game-winner in the 84th, spoiling Long Beach State’s three-goal second-half comeback to secure an entertaining 4-3 win.
“The game was emotional and unfortunately we’re on the wrong end of it,” Ingrassia said after the game. “We were on the wrong end of the PK call, and the momentum kept shifting. We scored three goals; we should’ve closed the game out—that’s for sure. You’re not gonna win a game when your lead goes away like that, and those last couple of goals are gonna haunt us.”
The loss becomes all the more frustrating when the box score reads as a game dominated on paper by the Beach, which doubled CSUN in both shot attempts (24-12) and corner kicks (6-3). The Beach had nine of those shots in the first half to CSUN’s four, but it was Jordyn Canister’s eighth-minute goal that gave the Matadors a 1-0 lead at the break.
To their credit, the Beach didn’t take long to respond in the second half after Ameera White opened the period with an early corner kick just three minutes into the half. The ball then ricocheted between CSUN defenders before popping loose near the top left corner of the box, where Radisson Banks ended up with it and slotted it away for the 48th-minute goal to tie the game.
That was what sparked the 15-minute onslaught of goals, as CSUN responded just five minutes later in the 53rd minute. Canister was able to find some space before feeding Yasmin Azar for the goal to regain a 2-1 lead over the Beach.
Long Beach State would score the next two goals within six minutes, as Natalie Arnoold laid a ball up to Olivia Yu off a set piece about seven yards out on the right. Yu crossed it off the foot of a sliding defender for the equalizer before Perez found her goal in the 62nd minute on a shot from 20 yards out that fell over the goalkeeper’s outstretched arms, giving the Beach its first and only lead.
“Being behind in soccer is normal, and responding is normal too,” Ingrassia said of his team coming out in the second half. “We switched formations and put two up front to put more pressure on their center backs and it paid off. We started to get more offense, and I thought we had the game under control, but unfortunately we’re going to want some of those final plays back.”
The biggest play that the Beach will want back is its foul inside the box in the 78th minute, which was initially called offside. CSUN coach Gina Brewer challenged the play for a foul that occurred before the offside, successfully overturning the call before Ingrassia issued a challenge of his own. The call then stood as a foul before Akins slotted away the penalty kick in the left side of the goal to retie the game, 3-3.
CSUN then found its game-winner from Peterson off another assist from Azar in the 84th minute. The Beach had numerous opportunities to respond in the final six minutes of the game, including a pair of opportunities following the game’s only two yellow cards in those final minutes. Both were issued to CSUN’s Sydney Lipkin, the second of which resulted in a disqualification, but both resulting set pieces fell off frame in Long Beach’s final chances.
Goalkeeper Aurora Schuck came up with four saves for the Beach, while the Beach had 11 different players with a shot attempt, including eight with multiple shots. CSUN received seven saves from ‘keeper Hayden Mauldin and a game-high five shots from Canister.
The Beach will look to rebound from the loss this weekend as they host Sacramento State back at George Allen Field on Saturday at 7 pm. The loss puts the Beach near the bottom of the standings early in the Big West season, three teams back from the top six, which will advance to the Big West Tournament in early November.
“We just have to have a short-term memory and turn the page to be ready for Saturday,” Ingrassia said. “We just have to watch the film and see what we can do better.”
