Courtesy: Jimmy Gekas/Sideline Studios Junior Caitlin Ryan's goal on a corner kick proved to be the game-winner over Seatte Pacific on Saturday.

LA JOLLA, Calif. – The 3^rd-ranked UC San Diego women’s soccer team defeated 18^th-ranked Seattle Pacific University to capture the 2006 NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Far West Region Championship on Saturday afternoon in front of 951 fans at Triton Soccer Field on the UCSD campus. The win avenges UCSD’s loss last year at the hands of Seattle Pacific who captured the 2005 Far West Region title by a 2-0 score in Seattle, propelling the Falcons to a National Runner-Up finish.

 

UCSD’s record improves to 20-1-2 with the win while Seattle Pacific’s year comes to an end with a 17-5-0 overall mark. The win for UC San Diego also marks the sixth time in program history that a team has reached the 20-win plateau. The Tritons have advanced to the NCAA Final Four in each of the previous five seasons that the team won 20 games, capturing four NCAA National Championships (2001, 2000, 1997, 1996). The lone season in which UCSD won 20 games but did not win a national title was in 1988, as that team finished as the National Runner-Up.

 

The Tritons scored their first goal at the 21:02 mark of the first half when junior Caitlin Ryan sent a corner kick into the lower corner of the far post for a 1-0 lead. The ball was sent swinging inward from the left corner, fooling SPU netminder Katie Ruggles who helplessly watched the ball sail over her head and untouched into the far side of the goal. The tally was Ryan’s fourth of the year.

 

UCSD added its second goal of the match in the 57^th minute when junior Kathy Sepulveda sent a ball into the penalty area from the right side to where senior Megan Dickey collected the ball and blasted it low and to the left of the ‘keeper for a 2-0 lead. The key on the play was senior Kelly Cochran running at the ball and letting it go though her legs, faking out two SPU defenders and allowing Dickey to get off the shot uncontested. The goal was Dickey’s ninth of the season.

 

Cochran would give the Tritons an insurance goal just 10 minutes later, taking passes from Dickey and junior Nicole Pepper before striking the ball from only five yards outside the goal. The scored was Cochran’s 12^th of the season, tying her for the team-lead with Sepulveda who netted her 12^th goal in the 4-0 victory over Western Washington in the Far West Region Semifinals on Thursday evening.

 

UCSD goalkeeper Jessica McGovern made six saves in her 83 minutes between the pipes for the Tritons before giving way to fellow sophomore Mia Shirley who wrapped up the fourth-straight shut-out for UC San Diego.

 

Head coach Brian McManus’ team has now won 11-straight matches and has an unbeaten streak of 15 (13-0-2) that dates back to September 22. The Tritons have out-scored their opponents by a whopping 33-2 margin during the 10-match win streak, including a 12-0 margin in the two California Collegiate Athletic Association and two NCAA Tournament matches over the last two weekends.

 

UCSD held a 13-9 advantage in shots but trailed in the shots on goal category, 6-5. The Tritons took only two shots in the second half, both of which found the back of the net.

 

The Tritons advance on to next Saturday’s NCAA Division II Women’ Soccer National Quarterfinal match. UCSD will face Metro State on Saturday, November 11. Kickoff is slated for 12 p.m. in on the Metro State campus in downtown Denver, Colorado.