Besides the offense, the defense will sorely miss Sargent but there are returns sophomore Brooke Tillemans and keeper Tonya Wingert, a freshman. The loss of Blackburn will be compensated by the hopeful return of injury redshirt Joanna Quninlivan. With Wingert and Quininlivan, the Dons have a flexible goalie tandem that can also play on the defense. Records were set this year. Silva scored three game-winning goals against Westmont, S.F. State, and Puget Sound tying her for the school record. Sargent set the consecutive game starts record with 73 straight games. The goalie tandem of Wingert and Blackburn set a new goals against average of 1.61. Blackburn ends her USF career with seven USF goalkeeping records and a career 12 shutouts.
A light, steady rain, marked the last for seniors Tonya Wingert and Shellie Silva, who started the game. The game was USF's first home loss of the season. Again, the Dons played a competitive game only to lack the scoring punch they possessed early in the season. "The chances we had were so close," said Coach Verhees. "I was surprised we could not get the ball in the net." Verhees would not blame the delay at Pepperdine for the two losses. "We were a little tired but that's something you have to deal with," he said. "Adversity is not uncommon in sports or life. You just have to pull up your socks and try to win." USF took the early advantage just rwo minutes into the game, when sophomore forward Jannik Abel took a pass from sophomore defender Kim Leavitt and beat the UCLA goalkeeper with a 6-yard shot to the left corner. However, UCLA freshman Traci Arkenberg equalized in the 30th minute with a 25-yard blast that was tipped by USF keeper Wingert and deflected off the crossbar before sneaking past the plane of the goal (TheFoghorn).
