GCU vs. Cal Baptist: Matchup of PacWest's Highest-Scoring Teams

Grand Canyon University and California Baptist University will play women's soccer matches tomorrow and Saturday, and if one of the teams wins both games it likely will claim the 2011 Pacific West Conference championship.

The Lancers are 12-1-1 overall, 8-0-1 and in first place in the PacWest. The Antelopes are 8-4-2, 7-1-1 and in second. The third-place team, Hawai'i Pacific, already has three conference losses, and while the fourth-place team, defending champion BYU-Hawai'i, has just two, it has to play three games in five days in the Bay Area -- the first was last night, when the Seasiders lost 2-0 to sixth-place Notre Dame de Namur -- and then host HPU on Nov. 2.

So the matches at 3 p.m. tomorrow in Riverside, Calif. and at 7 p.m. at the GCU Soccer Field in Phoenix very well may be for all the marbles.

Although CBU is in its first year in the PacWest, it is eligible to compete for the conference championship. It is in its first year in NCAA Division II after making the move up from NAIA, and was picked to finish fourth in the preseason coaches' poll.

GCU is seeking its first-ever PacWest women's soccer title after finishing in second place last season and being picked to be the runner-up again this year.

Something will have to give.

The Lancers and 'Lopes are the league's top-scoring teams. CBU leads the PacWest in goals (44), goals per game (3.14), points (a whopping 120), assists (32) and assists per game (2.29). GCU ranks second in goals (32), goals per game (2.29) and points (76), and seventh in assists (12) and assists per game (0.86).

Defensively, the teams are very similar as well. The Lancers have allowed a league-fewest seven goals all season (0.50 per game), while the 'Lopes have given up 18 (1.29) to rank third in that category. Because both of the teams' defenses are excellent, their goalkeepers don't have to make very many saves. The Lancers' Nicoline Jorgensen, the current PacWest Player of the Week, has the league's lowest goals-against average (0.53) but has made just the sixth-most saves (39, tied with April Beck of Dixie State). The 'Lopes' Stephanie Phillips (Tempe, AZ, Corona Del Sol, Washington State University) has the fourth-lowest goals-against average (1.57) but has made the ninth-most saves (31).

GCU's star, junior midfielder Marina Nesic (Koceljeva, Serbia, Nada Dimic Zemun), the 2010 PacWest Player of the Year, is back with the team after missing last week's 1-0 and 3-0 victories over Academy of Art because she was in Serbia playing for the national "A" team in a qualifier for the 2013 UEFA Women's European Championship. Serbia defeated Slovenia 2-1 on Saturday.

Nesic leads the PacWest in shots per game (6.64) and is second in shots (73), points per game (2.00), goals (9, tied with four others) and goals per game (0.82), and third in points (22, tied with Cal Baptist's Fabiola da Silva).

The Lancers' Kylee Nicassio is the conference leader in shots (74), points (27), points per game (2.08), goals (12) and goals per game (0.92). da Silva is second in assists (6) and assists per game (0.43), third in shots (48) and points (tied with Nesic), and fourth in shots per game (48) and points per game (1.57).

CBU's Kimberly Allard is second in the PacWest in game-winning goals with four.

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Grand Canyon University Athletics

GCU vs. Cal Baptist: Matchup of PacWest's Highest-Scoring Teams

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