PORTLAND – Three months after being picked to finish seventh in the Cascade Conference women's soccer preseason coaches' poll, Southern Oregon completed its act of defiance in Saturday's regular-season finale with a 3-0 win at Multnomah that clinched no worse than second place.
The Raiders (12-4-1 overall) put the finishing touches on a 10-2 CCC record against the last-place Lions (1-13, 0-12) with their fifth consecutive shutout victory.
Kaya Baird scored in the third minute,
Trinity Rhoades netted a penalty kick in the sixth and
Baylee Touey added the final goal in the 16th.
Phoebe Bunn assisted both Baird and Touey's goals.
SOU entered the day tied for second place with College of Idaho but moved ahead of the Yotes courtesy of their overtime loss at Northwest (Wash.). If first-place Oregon Tech defeats or ties 10th-place Warner Pacific tonight as expected, the Owls will win the conference title and the Raiders will get the No. 2 seed. But because the Raiders are the only CCC team to have downed OIT, if the Owls lose they'll be co-champions with the Raiders and SOU will get the No. 1 seed.
The CCC's No. 1 seed gets an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament. So does the winner of the tournament – which is scheduled to take place Nov. 9-12 in Springfield – or the tournament runner-up if the regular season champion repeats.
SOU's first-round tournament opponent won't be determined until the regular season concludes for other teams around the circuit on Sunday.
The Raiders dominated the Lions with a 26-2 advantage to shots. Lions keeper Trish Priest had to make 10 saves to keep it close.
Touey and Baird both tallied their third goals of the season and Rhoades got her first. Bunn is up to four assists.
The shutout was SOU's 11th, two away from the program's single-season record.
Ashlynn Hernandez completed it with one save.
