THOUSANKD OAKS, Calif. (April 26, 2008)
– It was bound to be an intense game in
the pool as the winner of today's Semi-Final game would
advance to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference Championship game of the 2008 SCIAC Tournament. Despite
a valiant effort from the Tigers, the top seeded and defending
Collegiate III National Champions Cal Lutheran Regals defeated # 4
Oxy by a slight 9-8 margin, sending Occidental into the third-place
game.
The Tigers, notorious for their slow starts
and come from behind efforts, once again found themselves battling
back from an early deficit as CLU took a 2-0 lead early in the
first quarter.
Sara Boehler, who finished
with a team high three goals, put Oxy on the board to cut the
Regal lead to one after the first. The Tigers kept the
momentum into the second quarter and took a 3-2 lead behind goals
from Karie Nickle and Danielle
Montenegro.
CLU came storming back however and went on a
3-0 run over the final three minutes of the second quarter to take
a 5-3 lead into the half.
Oxy reversed the momentum yet again as
Montenegro and Boehler each scored in the opening
minutes of the third quarter to tie the match at
five.
CLU's Joy Cyprian, who led all players with
four goals, responded with back to back counter attack goals to
give CLU another two goal cushion.
The Tigers refused to go away as they closed
out the quarter with goals from Becca Hofer and
Kelly Curtin tying the game for a
third time going into the final frame.
In the fourth it was Cal Lutheran coming out
with the quick scores to go up 9-7.
Boehler's third goal of the game brought Oxy
to within one with five minutes to play. From there the CLU
defense managed to stall Oxy, as the Tigers final six shots from
the field were turned away. Oxy had one last chance to tie
the game in the closing seconds, but Regal goal keeper Katie
Windsor came up with a magnificent save to preserve the 9-8 Cal Lu
win.
Occidental goalie Laura
Simanonok recorded seven saves as Windsor finished with
nine.
The Regals will advance to play Pomona-Pitzer
for the SCIAC championship and a birth to the NCAA Division I
National Championships in Palo Alto May 9-11. The loser of
that game will automatically qualify for the Collegiate III
National Championships in Connecticut May 2-4.
Occidental in the meantime will advance to
play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Sunday at 1:30pm in the 3rd place
match of the SCIAC Championships. The winner will also
receive an automatic birth to the Collegiate III National
Championships.
