Nov. 13, 2004

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - UNLV gave it all it had in a very tight competitive game, but No. 21 San Diego's Veronica Ambort scored the golden goal in the second overtime to give the Toreros a 1-0 win over the Rebels in the first round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament on Friday night at UCLA's Drake Stadium. Playing in its first-ever NCAA tournament, the Rebels finished their season at 12-5-2, while San Diego improves to 12-7-2, and advances to play UCLA on Sunday in the second round.

"It was a game of spurts for both teams, but they had more then we did during the game," said UNLV head coach Dan Abdalla. "They are a much improved team from when we played them back in September (a 2-1 UNLV win). I thought we had a chance to steal the win despite playing a very athletic team, but the chances didn't go our way."

San Diego held an 11-6 edge on shots for the game, including 9-4 in regulation. UNLV made several outstanding defensive stops in the game, including defender Jenny Ruiz heading the ball off the goal line off a point blank shot from SD's Michelle Rowe. The winning score came after San Diego earned its 12th corner kick of the game, and Marie-Claude Henry's kick found Ambort on the left side of the box, where she sent a shot to the right post that deflected off two players before going to the back of the net for the game-winner at 1:02.26. UNLV's best chance came in the first overtime, as Annii Magliulo drove down the right side and found Angie Inzana unmarked in the middle of the box, but Inzana's shot was high over the net.

UNLV goalie Jenna Huff finished with two saves in the game, while Torero goalie Karen Cook also posted two saves.