Irvine Valley's women's soccer team came up a goal short on Tuesday in a hard-fought Orange Empire Conference match at home against Santa Ana.
The Lasers gave up two goals early in the second half and ended up falling, 2-1, to the Dons.
IVC's record slipped to 3-7-6 overall and 1-6-5 in conference. Santa Ana improved to 5-9-2 overall and 3-8-1 in conference.
Irvine Valley and Santa Ana played through a first half where neither offense could get going. Only four shots were taken between the two teams in the first half in a scoreless 45 minutes.
Things opened up more in the second half.
Santa Ana was the first team to strike - just two minutes into the half. IVC lost the ball in the defensive end and Santa Ana took advantage. Coco Ortega took possession of the ball and found Vanessa Zarate, who put the ball in an empty net for a 1-0 lead.
The Dons struck again three minutes later. Lauryn Wood chipped a ball from the left side into the far post right net off a pass from Ortega to put Santa Ana ahead, 2-0.
Irvine Valley batled back in the last 25 minutes of the contest. The Lasers got on the board in the 70th minute. Freshman midfielder Giselle Garcia made a run on to a ball and went up for a header, but was fouled by the Santa Ana keeper just inside the box.
It set up a penalty kick for the Lasers and sophomore midfielder Heaven Hernandez hit the ball into the back of the night on the right side to make it a one-goal game.
The Lasers continued to pressure with sophomore forward Jade Stewart just missing a goal with a one-on-one attempt against Santa Ana keeper Fatima Pimentel. Pimentel made a nice save on Stewart's hard shot from close range in the 74th minute.
Sophomore defender Savanna Hayes also blasted a shot that went over the Santa Ana goal.
But it wasn't enough.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday at Cypress in a conference match at 3 p.m.
