Azusa Pacific University’s men’s and women’s soccer teams both had major accomplishments in their second-to-last games of the season Saturday against Dominican University.
Men’s soccer
The men’s team won 5-0 and clinched the PacWest championship in its first season of NCAA Division II playoff eligibility. The team’s record is 13-2 overall and 10-1 in the PacWest with one game left in the regular season.
In the first half, Carlos Garcia-Partida scored an unassisted goal at the 31st minute. This slow start was made up for in the second half, as the Cougars broke out with four goals. Keenan Ambrust scored two consecutive goals, one at the 61st minute and one at the 71st. Kaleb Ambrust scored on a high bounce from a Raul Martinez assist in the 73rd minute. The final goal of the game came at the 88th minute when Jeremy Bishop hit a chip shot over the goal keeper.
APU took 20 shots in the game, but Dominican only managed one. Dominican had four saves, the Cougars none.
“Really sweet to have sealed PacWest, even with a game to go,” head coach Dave Blomquist said. “I knew we were capable of winning the conference this year, but I didn’t expect it to come with still a game in hand. It feels great. A lot of the hard work the guys have been putting in has paid off.”
As a senior, Bishop is pretty excited about the chance to go to the playoffs.
“We’re striving for the big package,” he said. “I feel like we’re not tired, I feel like we’re hungry.”
The team plays its final game of the season Thursday against Fresno Pacific at 5:30 p.m. before heading into playoff games.
Women’s soccer
The women’s team won 2-0 Saturday and earned the seventh victory out of its last eight games.
Before the game, the team’s four seniors were honored. Shannon Hardy, Amanda Hardy, Logan Chan and Alyx Williams played their second-to-last games as Cougars.
The first goal was a special one for Shannon and Amanda Hardy, who are twins. At the third minute, Amanda Hardy scored on an assist from Shannon Hardy. The twins said they couldn’t recall that ever happening in their four years playing together at APU.
“I just know what she’s going to do with it. When she played that ball, I was like, ‘Here we go,'” Amanda Hardy said.
In the 53rd minute, Katelyn Rogers scored unassisted from the left side from 10 yards out. That was all the Cougars needed to hold down Dominican.
Azusa Pacific took 10 shots in the game and Dominican one. Dominican had four saves, APU one.
The Cougars’ record improved to 9-7-1 overall and 7-3-1 in conference. The team plays its final game of the season Thursday against Fresno Pacific at 8 p.m.
“The reality is that the beginning (of the season) was tough and put us too far behind,” head coach Jason Surrell said. “We figured out defensively where we need to be, and that’s helped us move forward.”