TURLOCK — Against one of the best teams in Division II — and a program on its way to becoming a Division I competitor — the Stanislaus State women's soccer team show its toughness in trying to defend the home turf Friday night in a CCAA semifinal match.

In the end, the eight-ranked UC San Diego Tritons cashed in a goal with 1:11 left in regulation to advance into the tournament championship tilt against Cal State L.A. on Sunday. The Golden Eagles, the sixth seed, defeated 19th ranked Sonoma State in the other semifinal contest in penalty kicks, 3-2, after a scoreless tie in regulation.

For Stan State, this ends the run of a miraculous comeback within a season as the Warriors finished the year 13-7. The Warriors had won six of their last seven matches to get to the CCAA Soccer Tournament semifinal match, including Tuesday's 1-0 first-round road-win at Cal Poly Pomona.

"We really turned around our season. It's tough to start the season off 1-5, but I am really proud of the girls," said senior Gabby Squarcia "We really bounced back. It took every single girl on our team with all of the support from the bench and everything to get to where we were."



Two weeks earlier on the same pitch, UC San Diego (17-2-0) had rolled to an easy 3-0 win over Stan State. However, this time around the Warriors stepped up to the challenge in the postseason and limited the powerful offensive juggernaut.

Coming off of three straight shutouts, Stan State's defense held the top scoring team in the CCAA down for nearly 89 minutes.

But the consistent pressure in the latter part of the match finally caught up to Stanislaus.

UCSD continued to pound the box and finally, in the 89 minute, three great connections set up Mary Reilly's game-winner. It started with a long volley from midfield to Jordyn McNutt who knocked the ball towards the box. Jamie Benedetto out-jumped her defender to get the ball to Reilly's feet. Reilly beat Haley Crook to the ball on the challenge for the goal.

UC San Diego out-shot the host team, 14-4, including a 8-1 shot advantage in the second half.

"I think we had a heck of a performance. We played really well. We battled hard the entire 90 minutes. I couldn't be prouder of this group," Stanislaus head coach Gabriel Bolton said. "Every team has a story to it and I couldn't be prouder for our story this year."

During their "Second Season," UC San Diego was the only team to defeat the Warriors twice during an eight-match span.