Box Score CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Soccer team punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament after their 3-0 win over CMS in the SCIAC Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Pomona-Pitzer Soccer Field.
Season Impact: The Sagehens improved to 13-2-3 and earned their third-straight SCIAC Tournament Championship and their third-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
The Sagehens had three different goal scorers in Amanda Khu, Genevieve Gray, and Ella Endo while Hannah Hong assisted on all three goals for the Sagehens.
The Sagehens and Athenas have never met previously in the SCIAC Tournament Championship in its 15-year existence. The only other three meetings between the teams in the SCIAC Semifinals all went in favor of CMS.
Both teams met at the Pomona-Pitzer Soccer Field earlier in the season resulting in a 0-0 draw and after 90 scoreless minutes in the regular season, it took just four minutes for the Sagehens to find the back of the net after Amanda Khu headed in a cross from Hannah Hong to put the Sagehens up 1-0 in the fourth minute of the match. That goal by Khu was the third-fastest goal scored in the SCIAC tournament Championship game.
After netting the first goal, the Sagehens stayed with the attack and ended up doubling their lead in the 29th minute off of a corner. Hong ended up with her second assist of the game off the corner after Genevieve Gray headed in her first career goal to give the Sagehens a 2-0 advantage over CMS.
The Athenas trailed 2-0 at halftime but came out in the second half and were the much more aggressive team on offense. CMS started attacking the Sagehens from distance, but goalkeeper Naomi Meurice stayed solid along with the Sagehens' backline.
After sending so many players forward, CMS got caught in the counterattack as the Sagehens pushed forward and sent a ball in the box that was flicked on by Hong and found the feet of Ella Endo who put away any chance of a comeback with the Sagehens' third goal of the afternoon.
The Sagehens will now await their opponent in the NCAA Tournament with the draw on Monday morning.
