SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Dominican women's soccer concluded its nonconference slate of games with a 1-0 victory Tuesday over UC Santa Cruz at UCSC Soccer Complex.

Megan Clapinski led the Penguins (6-1-5) with her sixth goal, while Michelle Salas Viniegra put together her third complete game shutout of the season. Dominican held the Banana Slugs (3-7-1) to one shot on goal and seven shots total while finishing with 13 shots and six on frame on the offensive end.

After a very slow start to the game that only saw one shot, Ayla Moore played a ball ahead to Ashlynn Hill who took the ball inside the left side of the box and passed back to Fatima Waldo Garcia who shot the ball off the left post in the 32nd minute. The rebound bounced back directly to Megan Clapinski who buried the second chance to give the Penguins the 1-0 lead. Dominican's back line continued to make life difficult for the UCSC attack as it was held without a shot on frame in the first half. The Penguins had one more chance at the goal in the first half as a corner kick with under a minute left found the head of Grace Plessinger who pushed it towards goal but it was knocked away from harm by Ainsley Gove and the half came to an end. 

The Banana Slugs finally found space near the box in the 54th minute as several quick passes and deflections saw the ball move left to right and back again where Sydney Boyd awaited at the top of the box and she loosed a shot before the space closed, but right to the waiting arms of Salas Viniegra. Moore broke loose down the left side in the 62nd minute and Gove left her back line in a race to the ball which Moore won but her attempt to chip it over Gove was blocked in the attempt and UCSC cleared the ball out of its defensive third. 

Moore had another beautiful attempt off a corner in the 69th minute as she rose well above the entire defense and headed the ball down towards the back line but a defender was in the right place at the right time to clear the ball off the line. Araceli Mejia was the last player who had a shot on frame in the 84th minute as a nice pass found her down the center of the box and she attempted a flick with Gove closing the gap once again to swallow up the shot with her body. 

Dominican will return to PacWest play Saturday as it travels to Jessup for an 11 a.m. PDT kickoff at Warrior Field in Rocklin, California.