TURLOCK – The California Collegiate Athletic Association title won’t be the only thing on the line when the Chico State women’s soccer team takes part in the CCAA Championship Tournament this weekend in Turlock on the campus of Cal State Stanislaus. The Wildcats are also likely playing for a spot in the NCAA Championship Tournament, a bid to which the winner of the CCAA Championship Tournament earns automatically.
Click here for a link to the Tournament Website.
The Wildcats finished the regular season 8-4-8 overall and claimed their third CCAA North Division title in four years with a 6-2-8 conference mark. Their eight ties matches the NCAA record, first set by Fort Lewis College last season.
The Wildcats will open up CCAA Championship Tournament play as the No. 4 seed against top-seeded Cal State L.A. (15-2-2) Friday at 1:30 pm. The Golden Eagles handed Chico State one of its two losses in CCAA action all season, 2-1, earlier this season in Southern California. In the first semifinal match, No. 2 seed UC San Diego (14-5-0) faces No. 3 Cal State Dominguez Hills (13-7-0) at 11 am. The semifinal winners will play for the tournament title Sunday at 11:30 am.
Chico State beat UC San Diego 2-0 in Chico on Sept. 20, and defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills 2-1 in Carson on Sept. 27.
Two wins this weekend would not only give the Wildcats their second CCAA title in the last two years, but would also give Head Coach Kim Sutton 150 career wins.
Senior Ali Sward and sophomore Lisa Webster lead the Wildcats on offense. Sward has played a scoring or assisting role in 68 percent of the Wildcats’ goals this year. She’s scored seven of the Wildcats’ 22 goals, and assisted on eight others. Webster, meanwhile, leads the team with nine assists and has also scored four goals.
As good as that pair has been, senior goalkeeper Natalie Bensky just might be the team’s 2009 MVP. She’s played every minute of every match and allowed only 15 goals for a 0.68 goals-against average that ranks fourth in Chico State single season history. Bensky has been especially stingy late this season, allowing just five goals in the last nine matches, six of which went overtime. Her GAA during that stretch is 0.48.
Bensky even turned away a penalty kick in the Wildcats' regular season finale at Cal State Monterey Bay Sunday. That could be a good omen. In the postseason, if matches are tied following double-overtime (as eight of the Wildcats' 20 have thus far in 2009, penalty kicks are taken to determine which team advances on.