In a battle of conference foes, the women’s soccer team (8-6-1,5-3-0 in SCC) was defeated by the No. 1 ranked Long Beach City College (13-1-0, 9-0-0 in SCC) 5-0 at Murdock Stadium Tuesday.

Their next opponent will be Cerritos College in the Warriors’ last home game of the regular season.

“Cerritos is a must-win game to keep us in second place in terms of earning bonus points to qualify for the playoffs,” coach John Britton said.

Tuesday’s result against Long Beach did not reflect how the Warriors played, especially in the first half where they played evenly with the three time defending state champions.

“I think we played well the first half,” assistant coach Mary Jo Soffel said. “It was 1-0 at half-time, then they got some goals after a couple of breakdowns and mental lapses from our women.”

The Vikings scored one minute into the second half, which seemed to give them the extra momentum they needed.

“In the second half after the kickoff, Long Beach scored,” Britton said. “It wasn’t really the turning point in the game, but it didn’t help because it put us back on our heels.”

The loss hurts, but the women have already put this disappointing performance behind them as they get ready to make a run in their last four remaining games.

“I don’t think this loss is a setback,” sweeper Britani Bresee said.

“If anything, it brings the spirit of the team down a little bit but I think we will go pretty far.”

Saturday, the women lost 1-0 to Saddleback College in a non-conference game, which was a defensive standoff.

“It was an even game,” Britton said. “But they capitalized on their chances and we couldn’t capitalize on ours.”

Last Tuesday, the women got revenge from the previous loss against Pasadena City College, defeating them 3-1 at Robinson Stadium.

The Warriors got goals from Bresee, defensemen Jennifer Vittorio and forward Cami Boyce on a penalty shot.

” Pasadena didn’t come out as hard,” Bresse said. “They thought that they were going to beat us again, but we played really hard and came out on top 3-1.”

The Warriors were trailing 1-0 after the first half in temperatures that reach the high 90s, but they played through it.

“Pasadena scored the first goal, but the women didn’t give up and they battled back.’ Soffel said.

“The game was actually pretty even,” she added. “Probably the last twenty minutes we controlled the game and had the momentum.”