No. 3 Canyons to Host No. 14 Santa Barbara in First Round of CCCAA SoCal Regionals

The College of the Canyons women's soccer team will enter the postseason as the No. 3 seed in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Women's Soccer Southern California Regional Playoffs.

In its first round matchup, Canyons (12-3-4, 6-0-2) will host No. 14 Santa Barbara City College (12-6-1, 6-3-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at the new COC soccer facility. 

Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children 10 and under, as mandated by the CCCAA.

A full CCCAA playoff bracket can be found here.

On Thursday, the Vaqueros came away with a 4-0 victory over No. 14 Citrus College in a play-in match which determined COC's first round opponent.

The Lady Cougars have some recent history with the Vaqueros.

SBCC, which finished third in the Western State Conference, North Division, defeated COC 2-1 back on Sept. 27, in a home game played at The Master's University.

In that match, the Vaqueros jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute with a penalty kick goal, then extended the lead to 2-0 before the half. The lone score for COC came by way of a free kick from freshman defender Hailey Phipps in the 59th minute.

The loss was the last suffered by head coach Justin Lundin's team, as COC bounced back from that stinging result to win its next seven matches, before finishing 7-0-3 down the stretch.

As a result, Canyons won the 2016 WSC, East Championship, claiming the program's sixth straight conference title, and 10th overall.

The Lady Cougars experienced a similar turn of events last season. 

Following a 1-0 loss to Santa Barbara on Sept. 18, 2015, COC went undefeated in its final 17 regular season contests heading into the playoffs.

However, COC then went on to suffer a 2-1 first round playoff loss to Santiago Canyon College — a fate the program's 10 sophomores will no doubt try to reverse this time around.

The Lady Cougars finished the regular season with a conference leading 11 shutouts and a 0.78 goals against average, having surrendered just 14 scores on the season. Led by sophomore goalkeeper Kianna Hemphill, Canyons posted nine shutouts in its final 10 games. 

Offensively, COC's 41 goals ranked sixth in the conference while the mark of 301 shots was good for third place. Twelve players have scored goal this season, including sophomore forward Amanda Balzer who leads the team with seven.

COC sophomore Jackie Mendez and freshmen Angel Quintero and Hailey Phipps are all tied for second on the team with six goals apiece. Sophomore Kailey Marquez is also a scoring threat with four goals on the year.