Freshman Clara Gomez felt that the women’s soccer team showed they still have what it takes to win the nationals this year with their dominating back-to-back wins in Florida this past weekend.

The team returned from Florida with a convincing 6-1 win over St. Louis community college and 5-0 win against Eastern Florida College.

“I feel like we really stepped it up for our first two games,” Gomez said. “We went out there and got a good start to the season.”

We’re proving that we are just as good as last year, ready to take on the competition and win nationals this year,” she added.

Smothering defense is what propelled the team to the top as they limited their opponents to a total of one goal the past two games.

“We went out there and took care of business,” sophomore Alexis Carrillo said. “We did really well.”

“We did well with our communication and played great,” sophomore Claudia Lopez added.

Despite blowing out both their opponents during the weekend, Carrillo believes that the team can only get better and learned from their first match.

“Our team chemistry was really well,” she said. “The mistakes we made the first game, we learned from them and limited those mistakes the next game.”

With Florida behind them, the team looks ahead to Friday with their first home game of the season against Cosumnes River.

“We want to leave all out on the floor and get that win,” Carrillo said.

The Falcons will also look to bring the same tenacity they had in Florida in their home opener.

“We protect our home, we don’t want to lose at home,” Gomez said. “It’s just as serious as it was last weekend.”

Game time is at 4 p.m.