OREM—Utah Valley played to a 2-2 draw after two 10-minute overtime periods but fell to California Baptist, 4-3, in a penalty-kick shootout in the Western Athletic Conference tournament championship on Saturday night at UCCU Stadium.
The result moves Utah Valley to 14-4-3 overall as the Wolverines now wait to learn whether they will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. California Baptist earned the WAC's automatic bid.
"We're very proud of the body of work that we put together over the course of the season," Utah Valley head coach Chris Lemay said. "Certainly, tying tonight wasn't what we had planned on, but I have every reason to believe we put together a résumé that's going to give us an opportunity to play more soccer and be selected on Monday."
Ruby Hladek opened the scoring in the 35th minute when her right-side cross into the box deflected off a California Baptist defender and Josie Shepherd followed the play, firing the rebound into the net to give Utah Valley a 1-0 lead.
Utah Valley doubled the lead in the 54th minute when Kate Shirts kicked the ball to Nixan Jackson, who headed it forward to Faith Webber. Webber finished off the bounce toward the far post for a 2-0 advantage.
California Baptist pulled within one in the 61st minute after Utah Valley was whistled for a foul inside the box; Anja Jestrovic converted the penalty kick to make it 2-1. The Lancers tied the match in the 71st minute when Taylor Held scored to even things at 2-2.
Neither team found a winner during the two overtime periods, sending the match to a penalty-kick shootout that California Baptist won, 4-3.
"At the end of the day, we went 1-0-1 in the tournament and we don't get the automatic bid," Lemay said. "Congratulations to Cal Baptist, they beat us on penalty kicks, and unfortunately sometimes that's the way that it ends. There are some things we'll learn from this game that we can build upon and get better because of. We're going to prepare like our name is going to be called on Monday, and be ready to go next weekend."
Utah Valley outshot California Baptist 19-13 and held an 11-6 advantage in shots on goal. Webber led the Wolverines with six shots, including four on frame.
Five Wolverines earned all-tournament team honors: Hladek, Webber, Shepherd, Mia Owens and Bailey Peterson.
Utah Valley will learn its postseason fate during the NCAA selection show on Monday at 2 p.m. MT on NCAA.com.
