If this were a jersey-jerking contest, the Pacific Tigers would have won, having ripped two of Long Beach State’s white “home” jerseys.  Instead, Pacific will be heading back home, their season over after the Niners won 3-nil in the Big West Tourney semifinals. The game was not played at the Niners’ preferred pace, but they stayed composed and made the most of the chances they had against a physical Pacific squad, despite being outshot 11-10.

“I feel that you can have sloppy games, you can have ugly games, you can have scrappy games,” said senior leader and birthday girl Hayley Bolt. “But a win is a win, and I feel great teams find a way to win—I think we found that.”

The Niners have now scored 13 goals in their last four matches, heading into Sunday’s Big West Conference title showdown against UC Santa Barbara—fortunately they’ll be playing at home, where Bolt has five goals in the Niners’ last two home matches.  Today Bolt’s goal total matched the number of jerseys she wore: Dos.

She was quick to point out her jersey during postgame interviews. She finished in the jersey of her injured teammate Sahar Haghdan, Haghdan’s number four altered with black tape to try and make it into a nine.  Bolt had to switch jerseys after hers was torn by a Tiger defender while she was scoring her first goal.  Truth is, she could probably play in a onesie and still dominate.  That first goal came with just six seconds remaining in a defensive first half, after she headed in a Yeraldy Hurtado direct kick with her back to the goal, tipping it up and over the too-aggressive Pacific goalie.

“I told the kids at halftime, ‘We did absolutely nothin’ in that first half and we came away winning 1-0,'” Long Beach State head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said.  “And that’s the sign of a good team.”

Senior Mariko Strickland made it 2-0 in the 85th minute when she received a low cross from Dana Farquhar in the heart of the box, shook off a defender, and calmly placed the shot in back of the net.

Strickland’s goal eased the tension in a scrappy second half, enough so that the relaxed Niners scored again, two minutes later, after Strickland sent in a beautiful left-footed lob for Bolt to knock in for her second goal—or, as Ingrassia called it, the “knockout goal” of the match.  It was the soccer version of a perfectly executed alley-oop.

Despite her two goals, Bolt had to credit senior goalkeeper Liz Ramos for making every save, and keeping the shutout.

“I went over after the game and gave her the biggest hug,” Bolt said. “She is the person who won this game for us.”

Ramos had seven saves in the match, six of them in the second half. Ingrassia pointed out that she didn’t have to make the “spectacular” saves, but she was always in the right position to make the save, and she made it look easy, even as she was peppered in the second half of the contest.

“She is the best keeper I’ve ever coached,” Ingrassia said.

The Long Beach State women’s soccer team has “3-peated” as Big West regular season champs, but this is the first time they’ve reached the BW tourney final—just one win away from an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.

They will host UC Santa Barbara on Sunday for the title. Long Beach beat Santa Barbara on Halloween, 3-2, in a double OT thriller.