HILO, Hawai'i – In a rematch from last week's Senior Day match, Saturday's PacWest Championship Game wound up being a defensive battle of wills.
No. 2 seed Concordia University Irvine and No. 4 seed Biola were both up for the task. The two squads needed extra time and then ultimately a penalty shootout after 110 scoreless minutes to determine a tournament champion.
Sarah Venegas,
Antonella Russo,
Bella Barrett and
Kalli Cho each converted their kicks from the spot but Biola cashed in on all five of theirs to win the shootout and the match 5-4.
The CUI seniors led the charge on offense. Russo racked up a game-high six shots and fellow seniors
Sloane De Torres and Barrett had three and two respectively. The Golden Eagles outshot the Eagles 16 to 10 but both teams were destined to play more than 90 minutes.
CUI also earned 10 corner kicks which presented a few good scoring chances. On the other end of the field, CUI goalkeeper Christian Sidoti was superb once again. The recently named PacWest Newcomer of the Year made six saves including one that she poked over the cross bar to preserve a clean sheet.
WHAT LIES AHEAD
The Golden Eagles will now await both their next opponent and the location for their next game. Concordia was the No. 3 team in the West region
when the regional rankings came out on Monday, Nov. 2 entering the conference tournament. But the formulas could change that order after this week's conference tournament results.
Biola secured the automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA DII West Regional Tournament and is projected to be the No. 7 seed out of the seven teams that will make the tournament.
Nationally-ranked and Cal Poly Pomona also lost in the CCAA semifinal and could drop in the regional rankings after coming in at No. 2 in the region in the most recent NCAA release.
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