SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – The regular season is over. Now the waiting begins.
The Azusa Pacific made their statement to the NCAA selection committee with their 15th win of the season on Saturday afternoon. The Cougars posted a 1-0 victory with a first-half goal against Dominican.
The victory is the teams 10th straight as they close the season with a 15-2 overall record and an 11-2 record in PacWest play. Azusa Pacific tied Point Loma for the most victories in the conference.
Heading into the weekend the Cougars were sitting in great position to qualify for the NCAA Championships. The 48-team field is broken-up into eight regions with six teams from each region receiving a bid. Azusa Pacific was ranked second in the west region and in a spot to possibly host first and second round games on Thursday, Nov. 12 and Saturday, Nov. 14. The NCAA will reveal the selections on Monday at 3:30 p.m. (PDT) on their website.
"Losing two games in OT to Point Loma and Concordia certainly could have caused our team to go one way or another. We knew how one more loss or tie could end our playoff changes," head coach Jason Surrell said. "We talked about playing with passion, desperation and desire. Those are lofty a goals with 10 games left. The girls were all about finishing this season in that fashion and today was the culmination of all that. I'm really proud of what we accomplished this season."
The afternoon's lone goal came from Katelyn Rogers in the 27th minute. She scored her league leading 11th goal when she took a feed from Haley Fisher then fought off her defender before her left side blast tucked into the right corner of the goal.
"We certainly should have had a few more goals. Give them credit because Dominican played well," Surrell said. "They were good in the second half. In the first half we played great and things flipped a bit in the second half. They were a solid team and they pushed us."
Although the Cougars found the back of the cage just once they put themselves in position all game to score. In the opening 12 minutes both Mayra Almazan and Fisher hit shots that rung off the crossbar. Later in the contest Casey Thompson put a ball on frame that would have given the Cougars a two-goal cushion but a Penguin defender knocked away the sure goal in the 76th minute.
Dominican had a second half goal waved off because of an offside call.
Azusa Pacific outshot the Penguins by an 18-3 margin with the Cougars holding a 10-1 edge for shots on frame. The shutout is the 11th of the season for the Cougars and they allowed just eight goals all season.
