Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — As christenings go, this one was sort of baptism by fire.

The Dominican University of California women's soccer team played the first regular season game on the new Kennelly Field at the John F. Allen Athletics Complex on Saturday and, though scoring on its first shot on goal, the Lady Penguins couldn't hold off a relentless Cal State Monterey Bay squad, falling 2-1.

The Penguins (0-1) were outshot 10-1 in the second half when the Otters (2-0) tallied goals a minute and five seconds apart to spoil the debut of Dominican's new field.

“There's a lot of positives to take away from this game, tactically we were very strong,” said Dominican Director of Soccer Jon Delano. “There are some things we've got to fix, but they are fixable and that's the most important thing.”

The inaugural contest at Kennelly Field started out to be a freshmen initiation. Freshman Stephanie Owens scored her first collegiate goal at the 28:54 mark of the opening half. Owens, out of Willow Glen High School in San Jose, tallied off a header courtesy of a gorgeous crossing pass by Julianna Bratsberg, a graduate student in Dominican's Occupational Therapy program.

Bratsberg took a side throw-in from teammate Alex Moran and dribbled out the northwest corner of the field to find space and launch her pass toward the far side post where Owens knocked it into the back of the net.

Dominican, thanks to solid play in the back from defenders Amanda Cervantes, Kendra Corsberg, Megan Hanson and Emily Whitaker – and a little luck – were able to keep the Otters off the board and away from sophomore Raquel "Rocky" Ramos,  who was making her first collegiate start as goalkeeper. She made a great diving save on a header off a corner kick with 26 minutes to play.

But Monterey Bay, which had three hard shots deflect off the crossbar or a post in the first 47 minutes of the game, kept the pressure on and finally tied the game and took the lead.

Shoshana Wangerin pulled the Otters even with the Penguins with a long run down the left side, taking advantage of a lapse in Dominican's defense on the new field. Her goal was followed 65 seconds later by a blast by teammate Andrea Davis that struck just inside the crossbar above Ramos.

The second of the two unassisted goals came with 9:19 left in the game.

“We made a couple of mistakes in the last 10 minutes, from a tactical standpoint, but those things are fixable,” Delano said. “All and all there are a lot of things we can learn from today's game.”

One of them will be simply adjusting to the new synthetic field, which is longer and wider than Dominican's previous grass field.

“There's an ocean of turf out there now,” Delano said.

The Lady Penguins return to action on Monday when they travel to fourth-ranked Chico State. The next home game for the Dominican women is Saturday, Sept. 15, at 4:00 p.m. when they host Azusa Pacific, one of four new members of the Pacific West Conference this season.

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