LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.’s women’s soccer team held steady in the latest official NCAA Division II West Region poll and made a small move upward in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s national poll.
The Golden Eagles remained No. 3 in the NCAA West Region poll that was released on Wednesday and climbed from No. 18 to No. 16 in the NSCAA national poll. Cal State L.A. (13-2-2) beat UC San Diego, 2-1, at Jesse Owens Track last Monday in its only game last week.
UC San Diego is ranked first in the NCAA West Region poll. Seattle Pacific is No. 2 and Cal State L.A. is No. 3. Following the Golden Eagles are Chico State, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Dixie State, Western Washington, San Francisco State, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona. The poll determines which three at large teams will join the champions of the California Collegiate Athletic Association, Great Northwest Athletic Conference and Pacific-West Conference champions in the six-team West Region. The top two seeds will host first and second round matches.
Cal State L.A., which is unbeaten in its last eight games with six wins and two ties, is currently second in the CCAA South Division with 32 points, one behind UC San Diego. The Golden Eagles will face UC San Diego in La Jolla on Friday night and then conclude the regular-season on Sunday with a road match at Cal State East Bay.
The Golden Eagles need one point in their last two games to clinch a spot in the four-team CCAA Championship Tournament. Cal State L.A. is also in position to win the CCAA South Division and finish as the conference’s top team with wins in its final two matches.
UC San Diego is the only team so far to clinch a spot in the CCAA Tournament, which will be held on Nov. 6-8 on the campus of Cal State Stanislaus.
The final NCAA regional poll will be released on Nov. 4 with the tournament field being announced on Nov. 9 at 4 p.m.
The national ranking is the eighth overall for the Cal State L.A.’s women’s soccer program and seventh straight. The Golden Eagles were ranked 15th in the final poll of 2007 that was released following the NCAA Division II playoffs. Cal State L.A. had been unranked all season and then made the rankings after reaching the West Region championship match.
Cal State L.A. received votes in the preseason poll in 2008, but didn’t reach the Top 25. The Golden Eagles were also unranked at the start of the 2009 season, but won their first five matches, all by shutout, before losing to Cal State San Bernardino. The Golden Eagles appeared at No. 23, jumped up to No. 14 and then climbed to a program-best No. 13 before falling back to No. 21. Cal State L.A. then moved to No. 17, slipped back to No. 18 and is now No. 16.
Coupled with the men’s program being ranked seventh in the nation, this week marks the seventh week in a row that both Cal State L.A. soccer programs have been nationally ranked at the same time. That had never happened before prior to this season.
The Golden Eagle women opened the season by posting shutout wins over Central Washington (9-0), Hawaii-Hilo (3-0), Academy of Art (9-0), Cal State Dominguez Hills (3-0) and Cal Poly Pomona (1-0).
The five consecutive shutouts are a program record and the Golden Eagles set a new program mark with a scoreless stretch of 474:34 before giving up the first goal against Cal State San Bernardino on Sept. 13.
Liz Franco leads the conference in scoring with 34 points on nine goals and 16 assists. The 34 points and the 16 assists are both program single-season records. She also holds the career assist record with 29.
Liz Conley, who had both goals in the 2-1 win over UC San Diego in the Golden Eagles’ last game on Oct. 19, leads the team with 10 goals and is second with 26 points.
Ann Marie Tangorra has nine goals, four assists and 22 points.
Cal State L.A. has outscored its opponents, 44-13 and has a 319-156 edge in shots. Goalie
Jessie Walworth has made 52 saves and has a save percentage of .812. She is 11-2-2, while
Heather Emswiler had made eight saves and has a save percentage of .889 and is 2-0 in two starts.