LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.’s women’s soccer team has recorded a pair of impressive firsts in the program’s history this week.
The Golden Eagles moved up to No. 1 in the official NCAA Division II West Region poll for the first time ever. That poll determines the field for the NCAA playoffs and was released on Wednesday.
A day earlier, the Golden Eagles jumped up to ninth in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s national poll, marking the first time in the program’s history that the women’s soccer team had cracked the national top-10.
Even better, Cal State L.A. has both soccer programs ranked in the national top-10 at the same time for the first time in school history. The Golden Eagles also have both teams ranked at the top of the regional rankings and both squads earned No. 1 seeds for this week’s California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament.
Cal State L.A. (15-2-2) is riding a 10-match unbeaten streak as it heads to the CCAA Tournament that begins Friday at Cal State Stanislaus. The Golden Eagles, who won the CCAA South Division with a 12-2-2 record and a conference-best 38 points, will face North Division champion and No. 4 seed Chico State on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in a semi-final match. The conference championship match will be held on Sunday.
The 48-team NCAA Division II playoff field will be announced on Monday. The final regular-season poll was released on Wednesday and following Cal State L.A. is UC San Diego, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Seattle Pacific, Chico State, Western Washington, Dixie State, Grand Canyon, Cal State San Bernardino. The poll determines which three at large teams will join the champions of the CCAA, Great Northwest Athletic Conference and Pacific-West Conference. The winner of the CCAA Championship Tournament will be declared the conference champion and receive the conference’s automatic NCAA bid. The top two seeds have the opportunity to host first and second-round NCAA playoff matches.
Cal State L.A., which is unbeaten in its last 10 games with eight wins and two ties, captured its first CCAA South Division title after posting road wins over UC San Diego and Cal State East Bay last week to complete the conference schedule. The Golden Eagles got a dramatic game-winning goal from
Kastidi Robles with 2:47 remaining to beat UC San Diego, 1-0, on Friday in La Jolla and got goals from
Ann Marie Tangorra and
Gabbi Segall to beat Cal State East Bay, 2-0, on Sunday.
Cal State L.A. has posted 10 shutouts so far this season, which is just two behind the program record of 12 set by the 2007 team. 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 a 2-1 win over UC San Diego on Oct. 19, leads the team with 10 goals and is second with 26 points. Tangorra also has 10 goals, five assists and 25 points.
Cal State L.A. has outscored its opponents, 47-13 and has a 360-178 edge in shots. Goalie
Jessie Walworth has made 61 saves and has a save percentage of .836. She is 13-2-2, while
Heather Emswiler has made eight saves and has a save percentage of .889 and is 2-0 in two starts.
Walworth had a great week in the matches against UC San Diego and Cal State East Bay. She made five saves, including one on a penalty shot, in the win over the Tritons and she added four saves in the win over the Pioneers.