LOS ANGELES, Calif. – In the penultimate game of the season, the Cougars ran into a familiar foe, falling to the Pacific Tigers 16-9 in the quarterfinals of the Golden Coast Conference tournament at Loyola Marymount University.  Jaeden Johnson paced the Cougar offense with three goals in the contest.

How It Happened: Pacific led wire-to-wire, scoring on a power play just 20 seconds into the game and taking a commanding 6-3 lead after the first quarter.  Laia Marsinach Ortega briefly drew the Cougars back within a goal at 2-1 with a power play strike of her own, but the Tigers would score the next two goals and then pour on two more late in the period to assume a three-goal advantage.

Pacific put the game away in the second quarter by continuing to clamp down on defense while finding the occasional scoring opportunity of their own.  Going back to the final two minutes of the first quarter, the Tigers scored six unanswered goals to run their lead to 10-3 before the Cougars finally were able to make another dent in the scoreboard.  Kaelene De Bie scored the Cougars first goal of the period before back-to-back strikes from Johnson in the dying seconds of the half cut the deficit to 10-6, giving the sixth-seeded Cougars a bit of momentum going into the third.

That momentum did not amount to much of anything, however, as the Tigers pitched a shutout in the third quarter, stretching their advantage to 13-6 by period's end.  Pacific would tack on the first two goals of the fourth quarter as well to take their largest lead of the game with just over five minutes to play, and all the Cougars could do was score a couple of late goals to narrow the scoreline.

In total, the Cougars were led by Johnson's three goals and two assists on the day, while Alexandra Akritidou scored a pair of goals in the fourth quarter.  Maritza Ochoa had four steals at the defensive end, while Daniela Herrero Miralles made five saves in net.  

Up Next: With today's result, Azusa Pacific (16-15) will play their final game of the season on Saturday, when they face off against California Baptist in the fifth-place game at 12:00 noon.