Oct. 5, 2009

Kansas City, Kans. - It's a big week in the national polls for the Pacific women's soccer team who defeated Long Beach State 1-0 last week in Long Beach, Calif. With the solid victory, Pacific's ranking in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America NCAA Regional Women's West poll moved to No. 6 in the region.

Pacific's record currently sits at 7-3-2 and 1-0 in the Big West Conference.

The women's NCAA Division I ranking is split up into the top 10 schools from each region, culminating in the top 25 teams across the nation. The U.S. geographical regions are: Central, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Pacific, South, Southeast and West.

In addition to the NSCAA ranking, the weekly national RPI list was released today, with Pacific at No. 89 out of 322 universities. Pacific and Long Beach State (No. 68) are the only two Big West Conference members to crack the top 100.

As for the national individual rankings, the go-to scoring tandem of sophomore Angelica Figueroa (Linden, Calif.) and freshman Maricela Padilla (San Jose, Calif.) each saw their names among the nation's best this week. The NCAA ranks the top 400 players in the country and Figueroa is the highest ranked player for Pacific, as she sits in the top 20, as the country's 18th-best play-maker. The sophomore's 0.58 assists per game are No. 18 in the country. Her teammate, Padilla, is also in the top 50, as her 0.667 goals per game ranks at No. 36 in the nation.

Pacific returns to action at home this week when they host Cal State Northridge in conference play at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9.

NSCAA National Rankings
NCAA Rankings Regional Women West
Rank School (W-L-T)
1 Portland (11-1-0)
2 Santa Clara University (8-4-1)
3 San Diego (6-4-1)
4 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (7-5-0)
4 Loyola Marymount University (8-3-1)
6 Pepperdine (6-4-0)
6 Pacific (7-3-2)
6 Saint Mary's (8-5-0)
9 UC Irvine (8-4-1)
10 San Jose State (6-4-1)