THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Playing a road game, on a rainy day, with kickoff pushed back three hours are tough enough circumstances to overcome. Then add in the best team in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as the opponent, playing their first game in a new stadium, and you are going up against a stacked deck.

It would have been a statement win for the Occidental College women's soccer team to go into Cal Lutheran University and get a win given the situation, but in a rematch of last year's SCIAC championship game, the Tigers lost to the Regals 3-0 in the first women's soccer match at Bill Rolland Stadium.

Perhaps they were not dealt a great hand, but it was one that would have been plenty fulfilling to overcome.

 "We wanted to go in there, especially considering last year it came down to us for the league championship and because it was the opening of their new field, and ruin their day," Occidental midfielder Liz Martin said. "But at the end of the day, we got outplayed."

For Oxy, the quality of the opponent and challenging environment does not soften the blow of losing to a rival.

"It almost hurts more given our history," Oxy defender Bree Geary said. "I thought it was a great opportunity for us that unfortunately didn't come out the way we hoped."

Martin said not getting off to a good start in the first half again hurt the Tigers (3-6, 3-3).

"We need to stop being a second half team," Martin said. "Too often we react to the other team to decide how were going to play."

Despite an offensive onslaught from Cal Lu, Occidental's Megan Leslie saved 10 of 24 shots sent her way, letting just the three slip past her for scores.

Alex Nicholson led Oxy with three shots and Elissa Minamishin and Kellee Murayama each had two.

Freshman Taylor Will, the SCIAC leading goal scorer, had a pair of goals and Nicole Rains had the other for the Regals (10-1, 6-0).

"Their goals were more mental lapses on our part. We picked it up in the second half, but it wasn't enough to put any in the net," Geary said. "We really need to focus on playing the full 90 minutes like we've been saying all along."