LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's women's soccer team got its 2022 season off to a promising start with an entertaining victory over Cal Poly Pomona Saturday night in University Stadium.

The Golden Eagles scored the game's only goal on a first-half penalty kick by Shelby Melin and Areli Reyes made a pair of beautiful saves late in the game to preserve a 1-0 victory. Cal State LA (1-0) picked up a non-conference win over Cal Poly Pomona (0-2). The two squads will meet in a California Collegiate Athletic Association game in October in Pomona.

The lone score was scored in the fifth minutes when Liliana Gonzalez drew a foul in the penalty box and the Golden Eagles were awarded the penalty kick. Melin calmly knocked it in for her second career goal - both coming on penalty kicks and both against the Broncos. Melin was also one of the successful kickers in the penalty-kick shootout against San Francisco State in the opening round of the CCAA Tournament.

The game was a tale of two halves with each side getting the better run of play for 45 minutes. Cal State LA had the majority of chances in the opening half and had an 8-2 edge in shots at intermission. The Golden Eagles were aggressive to the ball and seemed to have the Broncos on their heels for most of the first half.

Cal Poly Pomona got things going in the latter stages of the second half, but were denied on three quality chances in the final 20 minutes. First, Tara Oper fired a shot off the corner where the crossbar and post come together in the 71st minute and Reyes came up with two big stops on Cal Poly Pomona's Alyssia Larkin just a few minutes later. The first one was a leaping stop, while the second was even better, an acrobatic save while diving to her right. Reyes also aggressively came out to snag a dangerous corner kick to keep the Broncos scoreless.

Reyes made three saves in the game for the shutout.

Cal State LA ended up with an 11-9 shot advantage for the game and a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks.

The Golden Eagles showed off their exceptional depth with 23 players seeing action in the contest. Thaiz Hernandez and Alice Hernandez had two shots each for the Golden Eagles, while Destiny Moedano, Melin, Andrea Hernandez, Lauren Sanchez, Bryanna Avina, Gisell Cruz and Jonnie Sanchez had one each.

Cal State LA will return to action with a home game against Azusa Pacific on Thursday at 7 p.m.