(Azusa Pacific Assistant SID Stephen Hinkel contributed to this story.)AZUSA, Calif. – The 17th-ranked and No. 3 seed Sonoma State women's soccer team won the opening round game of the 2015 NCAA Division II West Regional against No. 6 seed Point Loma at the Cougar Soccer Complex Thursday evening in Azusa.
The Seawolves (14-2-3) earned their first NCAA tournament victory since 1998, the same season SSU appeared in its third national championship game in program history.
Sonoma plays host and No. 2 seed Azusa Pacific (15-2) on Saturday at 2:00 pm for the right to move on to next weekend's West Region championship match against Saturday's winner of No. 5 seed Seattle Pacific and the West Region's top seed Western Washington. Seattle Pacific defeated No. 4 seed UC San Diego 2-1 on Thursday night up in Bellingham, Wash.
The Seawolves scored the only goal of the opening stanza when
Carolyn Greco played a ball from just inside the midfield stripe into the box. Point Loma goal keeper Ariel Oriarte couldn't grab the ball and it slide past her and
Melissa Lafranchi took care of the rest. It was Lafranchi's second goal of the season.
Point Loma had an opportunity moments later when Rachel Witz had a nice strike on the ball after a corner kick but Sonoma State goal keeper
Ashley Luis came up with the save.
In the 59th minute the Seawolves made the score 2-0 when
Bella Amyx beat Oriarte on the right side of the field inside the box. Her chip shot crossed the goal line just before a Sea Lions defender could clear the ball.
Sonoma State's defense was solid all night in keeping the Point Loma offense scoreless. Luis made four saves in recording her 14th shutout of the season.
Quotes from SSU head coach Emiria Salzmann Dunn:"Any team at any given time wants to get that first goal to put your opponent on their heals. For us, it was really important because our last game we allowed three goals and that rattled us a little bit. Mentally for us to see the ball in the opponent's net was something of a monkey off our back. That early goal makes your opponent a bit more tense and cautious."
"All year long our philosophy was just keeping it simple and there was nothing new tonight. When we have good play defensively it will create offense."
"I expect both teams (Sonoma and Azusa Pacific) to be all in on Saturday."
