The quest for the 2008 Big West Women’s Soccer Tournament title and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament begins Thursday with semifinal action as Pacific travels to Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara hosts Cal Poly.
This is the first year in which the Big West is not staging the tournament at a single site. The highest remaining seeded team from the two semifinal winners will host Sunday's championship match at 1:00 pm.
Long Beach State enters as the No. 1 seed for the second time in school history. This is also the fourth consecutive tournament appearance for the 49ers. The previous three forays into tournament play have resulted in disappointment as the 49ers were defeated in the semifinals. In 2005, LBSU lost to UC Riverside in penalty kicks. In 2006, the top-seeded 49ers hosted Cal Poly and fell in a 2-1 double overtime heartbreaker. Those same Mustangs handed LBSU another 2-1 loss in last year's semifinals at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium.
Motivation won't be in short supply as the 49ers enter their match with Pacific as owners of their first outright Big West regular season title. It is the third consecutive championship for LBSU, which shared titles in 2006 and 2007. LBSU went unbeaten in Big West play at 7-0-1, including a 2-1 win against the Tigers on October 5. LBSU has won the last four meetings against the Tigers dating back to the 2005 season.
With a 13-4-3 overall record, Long Beach State is one win away from tying and two shy of breaking the all-time school record for victories in a season, which the 2006 team established at 14-5-1.
No. 4 seed Pacific returns to the Big West Tournament after a two-year absence. The Tigers last played in the tournament in 2005, losing 1-0 to a host Cal State Fullerton squad that eventually reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
The Tigers qualified on the last day of the regular season after defeating UC Davis. Pacific is 0-3 all-time in three tourney appearances.
UC Santa Barbara is appearing for the fourth time in the Big West Tournament. The Gauchos are 2-3 all-time, winning semifinal matches in 2004 and 2006. The No. 2 seeded Gauchos have amassed 12 victories this season, the most since 2004.
The Gauchos are trying to overcome a Big West Tournament nemesis in Cal Poly. UCSB lost by identical 2-0 scores to the Mustangs in the 2003 and 2004 championship matches. However, UCSB has won three of the last four regular season meetings, including a 4-2 triumph this season.
Cal Poly features the most historical tournament success of any Big West program. The Mustangs have never lost in the tournament semifinals (6-0-0) and won championships in 1996, 2003 and 2004. CP is 9-2-1 overall in all-time tournament action. The Mustangs are actually better this season in true road games (6-2-0) than they are at home (4-5-0).
ALL-TIME BIG WEST TOURNAMENT RECORDS
School Semis Finals Total
Cal Poly 6-0-0 3-2-1 9-2-1
Long Beach State 0-2-1 0-0-0 0-2-1
UC Santa Barbara 2-1-0 0-2-0 2-3-0
Pacific 0-3-0 0-0-0 0-3-0