Women's Soccer

Women's Soccer Wins SCIAC Tournament
Regals earn automatic bid into the NCAA Playoffs

Courtsey Cal Lutheran Sports Information

The California Lutheran University women's soccer team went on the road to defeat Occidental College on Saturday afternoon to win the 2007 SCIAC Tournament title. The match was decided by penalty kicks and after the Regals connected on its first three attempts to take a 3-1 lead, Jamie Johnson curled her shot inside the left side of the net to send the Regals NCAA Playoff bound.

After a scoreless first half, an offensive explosion erupted in which the teams traded two goals each. Jordan Kirkman scored the first equalizer off a free kick as she curled it over the Tiger goalkeeper.

Occidental again took the lead a few minutes later after converting a cross inside the box for a score. Again the Regals responded as a corner kick bounced around in front of the Tigers goal. Sarah Rickert drilled a ball off the goalkeeper's foot which bounced over her and just rolled over the goal line for the team's second equalizer.

The overtime periods only increased the anticipation for a winner as both team's had several scoring chances. CLU's Brittany Clark had the best opportunity for the Regals chipping a ball just over the Oxy goal.

The stage was set. Four goals and 110 minutes were not enough to decide a winner. A best-of-five penalty kicks would decide a winner of the match, the tournament and the recipient of a bid to the NCAA Playoffs.

Cal Lutheran began the penalty kicks and team leading scorer, freshman Aubrie Smith calmly booted a ball to the right for the conversion. Occidental's Marci King shot high and the Regals held an early 1-0 advantage. CLU's Sarah Rickert and Brittany Clark each converted their respective attempts and pushed the advantage to 3-1. Tigers freshman Season Falkler-Rodriguez skimmed her attempt off the crossbar and now the Regals needed to convert just one of its next two attempts to win.

The CLU run began before the tournament even started. The Regals were 1.5 games back of the fourth and final playoff spot before defeating Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on the road and Redlands at home to vault into third place. Cal Lutheran fell to fourth in the standings in the final game of the season, dropping a 2-0 road decision to this same Occidental team just six days ago.

Cal Lutheran defeated the regular season SCIAC champions CMS in Claremont 2-0 on Thursday and followed it up with today's win at the regular season SCIAC runner-up Tigers field.