(SAN DIEGO) Everything No. 16 PLNU Women's Soccer hoped to achieve this season was in the balance.
Trailing 2-0 at the half against No. 9 Hawaii Hilo on Monday, Point Loma's chances of winning a fourth-straight PacWest title and hosting a first-ever NCAA Regional were quickly fading.
But after a pair of second-half goals earned the Sea Lions a draw, those aspirations remain at least intact.
"I thought the girls had a wonderful response," Head Coach
Kristi Kiely said of her team's reaction to being two goals down. "They just did the things that we have been working on, they've been prepared and trained to do and they did a good job. They did a good job rebounding and staying in it mentally."
Hilo scored just over five minutes into the match after launching a ball forward from its own goal kick. After the ball bounced over a pair of players, the Sea Lions won a tackle but a deflection sent the Vulcans in through at goal to break the deadlock.
The visitors then added a second in the 29th minute after getting onto the end of an errant back pass. Goalkeeper
Julia Pinnell stopped the initial effort, before the Vulcans collected the rebound and found the back of the net for a second time.
"All the experiences help you along the way, right?" Kiely said. "We've been in this spot before, unfortunately a couple times this season, and we've been able to come out from it. The message was, they got two looks on goal on a couple of our errors and that was it.
"We had some looks we needed to play faster in the final third and we needed to find different options. We needed our 10's to be a little bit more active and involved, and I thought we got that in the second half."
Point Loma came to life, especially late in the opening half, with
Alana Diaz forcing a save and
Lily Paulson not missing the target by much. The Sea Lions then started the second half brightly in search of a goal.
Center back
Lauren O'Malley won a ball in midfield and played it out wide to
Jillian Tubbs, before continuing her run into the box. Tubbs' cross found O'Malley, whose header went just wide.
Not long after, O'Malley was the one to cut PLNU's deficit in half, getting on the end of an
Alana Diaz corner kick with a header at the back post in the 54th minute.
"Lauren is going to finish the best way she knows how to," Kiely said of her fifth-year defender. "It's tremendous and we are going to enjoy her as long as we have her. I appreciate her guts, her grit and her leadership.
"It was certainly a great service by Alana. I appreciate some game sense there, to try something that we've been working on."
Point Loma maintained its pressure on the Vulcan back line and was rewarded again in the 69th minute, as Diaz found
Bethany Arabe, who spun her defender before being taken down in the box.
Emma Thrapp then confidently stepped up and smashed her spot kick home to tie the match.
"It was a great ball from Alana to find Bethany, who did a great job to force them to make a hard decision on how they tackled, how they tried to win," Kiely said. "Thrapp stepped up in a really big moment. She had great composure and another leader just leading well in that moment."
With over 20 minutes still to play, Point Loma did everything it could to find a winner. Thrapp nearly turned provider as her free kick found
Alison Pepper at the back post but the ensuing effort just trickled wide.
On the other end, Pinnell then made a fantastic save to ensure that her team stayed level.
Ultimately, the two teams who shared the PacWest title a season ago shared the spoils on Monday, with PLNU unable to find a winner after recording twice as many shots (8-4) as Hilo in the second half and controlling 57% of possession overall.
The result has Point Loma (9-2-3 overall, 4-1-1 PacWest) in third place in the PacWest standings, a point behind Chaminade, whom the Sea Lions play at home on Thursday at 1 p.m.
PLNU is seven points behind first-placed Hilo with two games in hand, as the Sea Lions will likely need to win out and hope that the Vulcans drop points in one of their final two matches to have a chance to win the conference.
"It's in other people's hands, which is hard," Kiely said of her team's postseason prospects. "We know we needed to win and we didn't get it, but we learned about ourselves. I'm very proud of the group for their resilience today, and we'll hope that a few results go our way this week.
"We still have to come back out and face a very challenging and difficult Chaminade, and then HPU, all in a short amount of time. The work is not done, but we put in a shift today and I'm proud of the girls for it."
