Oregon State Women's Soccer Looks to Finish Up Non-Conference Schedule with Win Over Fresno State

Following a heartbreaking overtime loss to Weber State last week, the Oregon State women's soccer team looks to rebound against the Fresno State Bulldogs tonight at Lorenz Field. The Beavers (5-4-0) last seven matches have been decided by one goal, and finish up their non-conference schedule tonight against the Bulldogs (3-7-0). "It's a big game. Every game is a big game," said junior forward Najma Homidi. "It is our last shot to prove to ourselves that we worked so hard this season,and this far that come Pac-10, we are ready, that we can go into the Pac-10 confidently." Homidi leads the Beavers into tonight's match with the most goals scored (3), and points overall (7). She has recorded 24 shots on goal and has started all nine games thus far this season, but despite her veteran leadership, the team still remains young and is still looking on improving on numerous aspects heading into Pac-10 play after the Fresno State match. "We have a lot of young players," said Homidi, "so we have improved in the sense that we have to know how to put each player in a position that adds to their strengths, so once we have knowledge of that, then we grew, played quicker, knowing where to play the ball, just knowing how to play off of each other, everybody's styles, that's what we've built on." Coming into the match the Bulldogs are led by freshman defender Molly Nizzoli, who leads the team with four goals and nine points. The Beavers however are not looking to focus just on Nizzoli, herself, with Fresno State being a physical team, their sights will be on the defender, but the whole team will be the main focus. "If there is a player that we need to key in on, put emphasis on her, but that will not take our attention off of the team, we will just need to keep an eye on her." Reflecting on the Weber State match last week, the Beavers dominated offensively, but you couldn't tell by the score. The Beavers had no problem setting up shots on goal, but finishing was the issue, an issue that needs to be resolved in order to defeat a bigger, more physical Fresno State team. "I know that it's gonna be a physical match," Homidi said about the matchup against Fresno State, "so we need to prepare for that mentally, knowing that it's going to be a physical match. We just need to stand guard, make sure that we don't give up the ball easily. I'm pretty sure they can play,also, they can move the ball,but I think it's more physical." Offensively the Beavers will look to create opportunities for Homidi and junior midfielder Rachael Axon, who is third on the team in scoring with three points. As noted earlier, the last seven matches have been decided by one goal, an issue that can be resolved by finishing opportunities made, many of which were wasted in the Weber State match last week. "It was a loss, but if you look at the overall game we had 20 shots to their 8, sometimes it's just bad luck," Homidi said regarding the Weber State match. "So what we can build on, obviously we dominated,we just have to have that mentality now that we can dominate teams." Coming into the matchup against the Beavers, sophomore Fresno State goalkeeper Kaitlyn Revel has seen most of the time in the net, recording 1.66 goals against average per match in 10 appearances this season. Comparing the Beavers 125 shots on goal this season to Revel's GAA,the Beavers should have plenty of opportunities for goals in this match, and finish their non-conference schedule on a high note. After tonight's home match against Fresno state at 5:00 PM, the Beavers start off the Pac-10 conference play by heading down to Berkeley, California for their away match against the #22 Golden Bears of California (7-3-0), who should prove to be a tough matchup for the Beavers.