2 shutouts and 2 wins in NCAAs

By Jeremy Herb

The women's soccer team cruised into the third round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend, outscoring their opponents 9-0.

Seven different Broncos found the back of the net in Santa Clara's 5-0 victory over Fresno State Friday and 4-0 win Sunday against Saint Louis University.

The No. 5 Broncos' third-round opponent is Boston College, which will travel to Buck Shaw Stadium for the Saturday game. Santa Clara has never faced the Eagles in either postseason play or during the regular season.

"I've never seen them play. I have no info on them," head coach Jerry Smith said. "I know this though -- they're good enough to get to the round of 16."

The Broncos had struggled offensively going into the tournament, failing to score more than one goal in three of their final four regular-season contests, but Smith wasn't surprised by his team's offensive surge this weekend.

"If there was a question on our team, it was putting the ball in the net," Smith said. "We learned a lot about that against Saint Louis."

While the Broncos beat SLU by a wide margin, the game looked like it was going to be close for most of the first half. Santa Clara kept the ball in the Saint Louis end, but could not capitalize on their chances.

Junior midfielder Elyse Shelger and junior forward Tina Estrada both found iron, ringing shots off the post within a seven-minute span.

Finally, in the 39th minute, sophomore forward Meagan Snell slammed home a rebound in front of the Billiken net to give the Broncos the lead.

The Broncos took a slim, one-goal lead into halftime, but deflated the Billikens' chances three minutes into the second half with a another tally.

"That was a key moment in the game," Smith said. "I saw the Saint Louis team lose a little bit of energy."

Estrada set up the play, dribbling around a SLU defender and centered a pass to sophomore midfielder Brittany Klein, who calmly put the ball in the short side of the net. The Broncos added two more goals from sophomore forward Jordan Angeli and junior midfielder Tiffany Roberts to put away a Saint Louis squad that looked tired following a hard-fought match Friday against Stanford.

"We wore down in the second half," SLU head coach Tim Champion said. "We would have liked to have been rested; depth hurt us a little more than anything else."

In their opening match against Fresno State, the Broncos wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Tina Estrada scored in the 6th and 17th minutes to give the Broncos an early lead and were never challenged in the 5-0 victory.

"I'm the type of player who likes to play under pressure," Estrada said. "It's a challenge for me."

When asked about the Broncos, Fresno State head coach Steve Springthorpe said, "I thought they were a little more hungry than the last time we played them."

The Broncos' early success in the NCAA Tournament is typical of Smith's teams. Under Smith, the Broncos have made the quarterfinals each of the past 10 years and advanced to the Final Four in seven of them.

Contact Jeremy Herb at (408) 551-1918 or jmherb@scu.edu.