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SAN DIEGO -- Point Loma Nazarene put on a scoring clinic in the second half of Tuesday's GSAC Tournament Opening Round Match against Fresno Pacific. Leading just 1-0 at the break, the NAIA No. 3-ranked Sea Lions poured in five goals over the final 45 minutes en route to the 6-0 triumph.


Erica Wessels and Krista Gregory each scored two goals for PLNU with Katie Pedlowe and Codi Cameron adding a goal apiece to send the Sea Lions into the GSAC Tournament semifinals.
 
“I felt like the girls played very consistently all day,” said Coach Tim Hall. “It was just a really well played, balanced game in all facets.”
 
The Sea Lions entered the game as the top seed in the GSAC Tournament after winning the regular season conference title, but they knew they could not take the Sunbirds lightly.
 
“Last time we played [Fresno Pacific], it was a pretty tough game,” said Cameron, a sophomore midfielder. “We knew that in order to get a better seeding for [the NAIA National Championships] that we had to step up today.”
 
Though the game remained scoreless through most of the first half, the Sea Lions controlled the tempo from the opening whistle.
 
The Loma offense attacked the net relentlessly, firing 19 shots on the day. In the 34th minute, Wessels put the Sea Lions on the board with a header off of deflection by FPU goalkeeper Catherine Michaelis.
 
Meanwhile, the Sea Lion defense completely suffocated the Sunbirds, who were not able to get a single shot off until 30 minutes in. Junior goalkeeper Tiffany Kracy went largely unchallenged throughout the game, easily stopping the three shots sent her way.
 
After the break, the Sea Lions kept the momentum going. Three minutes into the second half, Pedlowe, a senior forward raced down the right sideline and rocketed the ball past Michaelis to give the hosts a commanding 2-0 lead.
 
But the Sea Lions were just getting warmed up. Six minutes later, Wessels again worked her way in front of the net to pound in another deflection for her second goal of the game. She has seven on the season.
 
“I somehow find myself in the box a lot,” said Wessels, a senior and team captain. “I go up corners and I stay up just in case. I guess it paid off today.”
 
At the 60-minute mark, Gregory added to the bombardment, knocking in her own header off a corner kick from junior midfielder Kallie Caldwell. Two minutes later, Gregory struck again from 25 yards out to stretch the lead to 5, tying Wessels with 7 for the season.
 
Amid the Sea Lion onslaught, the game took a scary turn in the 68th minute when Gregory collided with Michaelis and landed hard on the grass, injuring her elbow. Her status for the semifinal is uncertain.
 
The rest of the game was largely uneventful until Cameron tapped in the team's sixth goal with four minutes left. It was her fourth goal of the season.
 
The Sea Lions bounced back frrom their first loss of the season to record their most lopsided victory. It was the most goals that Loma has scored since beating Vanguard 6-1 in a NAIA National tournament game in 2009.

PLNU (17-1-1) will play host to Westmont - the team that beat PLNU 2-0 last Saturday -  for a semifinal match on Friday starting at 2:00 p.m. The #4 seeded Warriors easily got past #5 Concordia 4-0 in one of Tuesday's other tournament tilts.

GSAC TOURNAMENT
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
GSAC Tournament First Round
#1 Point Loma Nazarene (H) 6, #8 Fresno Pacific 0
#4 Westmont (H) 4, #5 Concordia 0
#3 Azusa Pacific (H) 1, #6 Vanguard 0 (ot)
#7 The Masters 1, #2 Biola (H) 1 (2 ot)
    The Master's advances on penalty kicks, 4-2.

Friday, November 4, 2011
GSAC Tournament Semifinals
#4 Westmont at #1 Point Loma Nazarene, 2:00 pm
#7 The Masters at #3 Azusa Pacific, 2:00 pm