IRVINE, Calif. - For the second time in as many years, the Point Loma women's soccer team captured the PacWest Conference Championship. The Sea Lions came from one goal down on the road on Saturday to defeat second-place Concordia, 4-1.
 
After spotting CUI a goal in the second minute of the match, the Sea Lions battled back to get the equalizer in the match in the 34th minute on a goal by Ashlee Watkins. That score sent the match into halftime tied at 1-1, but it did not remain there long.
 
Just two minutes out of halftime, Julia Glaser finished off a pass from Makenna Herrero deep in the box to give the Sea Lions the 2-1 lead. Glaser added another goal four minutes later on an assist by Abbi Swanson to extend the lead to 3-1. Raynee Odell added an insurance goal in the 87th minute, assisted by Glaser, to put the match away and deliver Point Loma the championship.
 
Point Loma outshot CUI 15-6, including 10-4 on shots on goal. Emma Hinson had three saves for the Sea Lions, and Kaelyn Whitcomb made five saves for the Eagles.
 
Team Records
Point Loma (12-4-1, 9-0-1 PacWest), Concordia (9-4-2, 7-1-1 PacWest)
 
PacWest Implications
The Sea Lions now have 28 points in the conference standings and have clinched at least a share of the 2019 PacWest Championship. If PLNU were to lose its next match, and Concordia wins its next two, the teams would be co-conference championships. However, Point Loma would still receive the league's automatic bid to 2019 NCAA Regional based on the tiebreaker of its head-to-head win over the Eagles.

Words from Coach Kiely
On the match: "I am nearly speechless. We knew this was going to be a challenge coming to Concordia. It a very tough place to play, and they were coming off a very emotional win on Thursday. But we knew they would be tired because of that, and we had to win. Going down a goal was a bummer, but it never felt like we weren't going to create opportunities."
 
On her team's performance: "The women were sharp to every tackle, they executed the game plan, they played with great energy and they were having fun."
 
On Julia Glaser: "Jules is exceptional. The thing that is so special about her is you can game plan for her, and she'll still win. She has an answer before you've even thought about how to take something away from her. She does things that the coaching staff isn't even thinking. It is beyond the stats to the things you don't see if you aren't sharp to it. It is the way she can hold the ball, make defenders seem like they aren't doing their job, the way she sees the field, and the feel for the game she has. It is a lot of things that give us confidence outside of her just scoring goals, but makes her presence so important."
 
More on the Sea Lions: "What is special about this team though is it is more than just Julia. She is an exceptional player, but it has been a team effort with the 'next man up' mentality. Everyone has played a role and contributed. The fun part about this year is doesn't feel so dependent on one player, but that player is still very special."
 
On the defense: "The one thing the stats don't show was the remarkable job Courtney Seman did on their leading goal scorer (Jadenn Carrillo). She shut her down entirely and held her without even a single shot. All the backs provided great help, but Courtney stood out for the job she did."
 
On the back-to-back championships and the team culture: "I will always go back to the players on this one because we can come up with game plans, but they have to execute. They have had great buy-in. We've had players that didn't contribute last year step in and play significant roles for us. The more they bought into the system, with its energy and enthusiasm, the better we will continue to be. They make it a joy to come out and coach every day."
 
On the upcoming match: "Biola is tough place to play, and they are a hard team to score goals on. We have our work cut out for us. Obviously we'd like to stay unbeaten, but we also want to stay injury-free heading into postseason play. We'd like to win, but we'd like to do well in the postseason, so we will have to wait and see what that means."

Scoring Summary
01:33 - CUI GOAL: Marianna Maldonado (unassisted) [CUI 1, PLNU 0]
33:36 - PLNU GOAL: Ashlee Watkins (unassisted) [PLNU 1, CUI 1]
46:19 - PLNU GOAL: Julia Glaser (Makenna Herrero) [PLNU 2, CUI 1]
50:28 - PLNU GOAL: Julia Glaser (Abbi Swanson) [PLNU 3, CUI 1]
86:26 - PLNU GOAL: Raynee Odell (Julia Glaser) [PLNU 4, CUI 1]

News and Notes
> Glaser has now scored in eight straight matches (10 goals)
> Women's soccer is the only PLNU program to win back-to-back conference titles
> Point Loma is 19-0-2 all-time in PacWest play under coach Kiely
> Point Loma is unbeaten in over two calendar years in PacWest play (21-0-2)
> PLNU saw its consecutive minute shutout streak end at 416 consecutive minutes
> Glaser is now tied for the PacWest lead in goals scored (13)
> Swanson took over the PacWest lead with her sixth assist
 
Next
The Point Loma women's soccer team will close out the 2019 regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at Biola with a chance to capture the 2019 PacWest Championship outright with a win or a draw. The game will kickoff at 4 p.m.