Nov. 1, 2009

Box Score

Fullerton, Calif. - The Pacific women's soccer team just barely missed making a post-season appearance after falling 2-1 in double overtime at Cal State Fullerton.

With the loss, the Tigers dropped to 10-6-3 overall and 4-3-1 in conference action, for 13 overall points. A tie would have given the Tigers 14 to put them into the conference tournament, while a win would have resulted in 16 overall points. Instead, Pacific finished in a three-way fourth place tie with 13 points alongside Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine. By virtue of a head-to-head tie-break, UC Irvine advances to the Big West Tournament. UC Santa Barbara concluded 2009 with 16 points for the No. 3 seed, while Cal State Northridge took second place in regulation play with 18 points behind Cal Poly's 21 and No. 1 seed.

Cal State Fullerton's victory gave them a 4-3-1 conference finish and a 6-8-5 overall record for a share in the fourth-place tie.

Pacific landed its only goal of the contest in the 85th minute when a Titan foul gave the Tigers a free kick at the midfield mark. Freshman Lauren Olvera (Whittier, Calif.) took the shot for Pacific and found sophomore Laura Hogan (Poway, Calif.) who gave the ball to sophomore Angelica Figueroa (Linden, Calif.). Figueroa teed off on the Titans' goal, as goalie Jordan Santos jumped up to tip the ball out of the box.

Santos's punch sent the ball up towards the crossbar, before it fell down on her back and landed in for the goal to put the match into overtime at 1-1.

During the first overtime period, neither team attempted a shot to garner the victory, but it was Cal State Fullerton who struck the final blow in the second overtime period.

At 104:06 Danielle Bitoni snuck the ball past a diving Jill Medigovich (San Diego, Calif.) from six yards out as the ball rolled into the bottom left corner, securing the Titans' 2-1 victory and ending Pacific's hopes of continuing onto the Big West Conference Tournament.

Both teams went without a goal up until the second half, when Tanya Slusser headed the ball into the lower left corner of the goal in the game's 54th minute. That put the Titans up early, 1-0, before Pacific tried to come back with the rebuttal.

The Tigers posted 10 shots in the match to Cal State Fullerton's 13, as Figueroa led all players in the match with five shots. Sophomore Kristina Wavomba (Encinitas, Calif.) was just behind with three of her own.

Medigovich closed out the afternoon with three saves behind a Tiger defense that earned one team save in the loss.