OLATHE, Kan. -- The NAIA's top-seeded Azusa Pacific overcame ghosts of tournaments past, knocking off No. 8 seed Westmont 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2006 NAIA Women's Soccer Championship Saturday afternoon.
The victory was the first-ever over the Warriors in NAIA tournament play for Azusa Pacific, which kept the Cougars out of the 1999 title game with a 2-1 semifinal win and won the 2002 NAIA crown with another 2-1 victory. It also marks Azusa Pacific's first trip to the NAIA semifinals since that 2002 defeat to Westmont in the NAIA title game, despite participating in 9 consecutive NAIA Tournaments.
"I knew the history of the rivalry at nationals, and our hope was that the girls would understand the history," said Cougar head coach Jason Surrell, who inherited the Cougar program in 2000 after Christian Johnson took Azusa Pacific to the 1998 NAIA championship and the 1999 semifinals. "About 5 minutes after the game, I got a call from C.J., and he just told me that even though he is so far removed from the rivalry at this point, it still means a lot to him."
It also gives the Cougars an additional measure of revenge against the team that handed them their only defeat of the season. Azusa Pacific, which dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Westmont on a goal in the final minute Sept. 30 in Santa Barbara, hammered the Warriors 5-1 in Azusa in the semifinals of the NAIA Region II Playoffs.
"It's Westmont, it's a rival, it's not going to be pretty and you won't be able to dominate," said Surrell. "At times it's just going to be our will against theirs, and that's a strength for us. This team has a desire to get after it, and they showed good composure and confidence getting after it in the second half. I also thought we closed the game out well."
Junior Randie Massro headed in a free kick in the 62nd minute off the foot of sophomore Karen Lawrence, snapping a 0-0 deadlock on just the second shot on goal of the game.
"Every ball I get to play in, I see it develop in my head as a goal," said Lawrence, who continued to provide quality strikes on free kicks and corner kicks for the Cougars. "It wasn't a huge surprise to see Randie score, but it was a huge relief because we had worked so hard all game, and it was good to see it pay off."
The goal was the fourth of the season for Massro, who scored on a similar play in last year's 3-0 victory over Indiana Wesleyan, heading in a corner kick for her fourth goal of last season, as well.
"Right before Karen took the kick, I saw an image in my head from last year," said Massro. "I ended up diving for this one to get it in."
After a first half in which none of the 6 total shots went on goal, the Cougars mounted a furious second-half attack. Azusa Pacific out-shot Westmont 16-1 after halftime, putting 7 shots on goal while holding the Warriors to just 1 shot in the second half, a 50th-minute strike that went wide.
"We chose to go into the wind for the first half and just try to keep it close, and some of the balls we played weren't effective in the first half because of that," said Surrell. "I also thought (Westmont head coach) Rebecca (Mouw)'s adjustment putting 5 defenders in back was a good move to keep the game close."
Massro was a force all over the field, spending most of the first half in a midfield that featured much of the action. After senior defender Julie Fletcher left the game with about 12 and a half minutes remaining in the first half, Massro moved to a center back position. From that point on, Westmont was able to generate just 2 more shots the rest of the game.
"There was a lot on the line because of past history, but Coach told us we could change history," said Masssro. "It definitely pumped me up knowing we had never beaten them at nationals. That got us fired up."
Westmont goalkeeper Ashley Werner, who tied a Warriors program record with 10 saves in a 1-0 win over the Cougars Sept. 30 in Santa Barbara, finished with 6 saves, all in the second half, to keep Westmont within striking distance through the final whistle.
The 1-goal win marked the first time in the past 11 games Azusa Pacific has scored fewer than 3 goals, but the shutout was the Cougars' eighth in the past 9 games, and it gave junior goalkeeper Jill Colfer her 13th shutout of the season to bring her career shutout total to 34.
With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 20-1 on the season and advances to Monday's semifinals, where it will meet the winner of tonight's matchup between No. 5 seed Concordia (Ore.) and No. 4 seed Houghton (N.Y.). The Cougars return to the semifinals following 3 straight early exits, twice in the quarterfinals in 2003 and 2005 and a second-round departure in 2004, after advancing to the semifinals in each of its first 5 NAIA Tournament appearances from 1998-2002. Westmont, which was the only team to defeat the Cougars this season, finishes the year at 14-6-1.
