FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno Pacific (9-27) hosted their National Invitational to conclude the season. The first day looked a little rough as the Sunbirds fell to California Baptist and Concordia, but bounced back well to defeat Azusa Pacific and UC Santa Cruz on day two to finish their season with back-to-back wins.
The Sunbirds lost to Cal Baptist and Concordia 3-14 and 6-13, respectively. The Sunbirds then came back to win their next two games defeating Santa Cruz 8-6 and Azusa Pacific 8-7. The Sunbirds’ Jamie Lugo scored the game-winning goal with 1:52 left to play to put the Sunbirds up 8-7, and Fresno Pacific was able to hold Azusa scoreless in the final minutes of the game to win.
Lugo scored both her goals against Azusa in the final quarter putting her at five goals for the tournament.
Borbala Toth led the Sunbirds with six goals on the weekend.
Katie Rayner followed both Lugo and Toth with four goals, all coming in their win over Santa Cruz.
Dani Mortimer finished the weekend with 33 saves, starting all four games for the Sunbirds. Mortimer’s tournament-high came in their loss against Concordia with 12 saves.
Despite having fewer wins this season, the Sunbirds showed a lot of growth according to Head Coach Bryan Suhovy. Fresno Pacific had a much tougher schedule this year with multiple ranked opponents scattered throughout the season.
Coach Suhovy commented, “The weekend went well. The girls played hard and had some big wins to finish the season.”
The Sunbirds finished the season 9-27 and finished third in their final tournament.