The Sacramento State women’s soccer team won the regular season Big Sky Conference championship last Friday with a 1-0 win over Portland State. It is the first regular season title in school history.

“(It’s) something that we’re very proud of,” Athletic Director Terry Wanless said. “It’s a great accomplishment for the team.”

With the win, Sac State earned the right to host the Big Sky Soccer Championships. The school has never hosted the four-team postseason tournament.

“That’s very important to us,” said Katie McCoy, senior forward.

“It’s been our goal for the past three years to host,” said Katie Burton, senior defender.

Hornets coach Randy Dedini said recent history shows that the host team usually wins the tournament. The last two hosts, Weber State and Idaho State, won their respective conference tournaments.

Although the women’s soccer program does not have a long history of postseason play, this Hornets team is very familiar with the conference tournament. In 2005 the Hornets made it to the program’s first conference tournament in three years, then suffered a loss to Northern Arizona in the first round.

Last year, the team advanced to the championship game of the tournament for the first time in program history, but lost to Idaho State on penalty kicks.

“We felt like we deserved it last year,” sophomore forward Kim Kemper said.

Because of the close nature of tournament games (both of the Hornets’ games last year ended in penalty kicks), McCoy said the team has been working on penalty kicks in practice a lot more.

“After what happened to us last year, we’ve been practicing (penalty kicks) all year long,” Dedini said.

The Hornets will not face the defending champions again, because Idaho State failed to qualify for the tournament. The Bengals visited Sac State on Oct. 14 and forced the only tie the Hornets have had at home this season.

“I would want so badly just to beat them in that final game,” Kemper said. “Just like they did to us.”

The first-seeded Hornets will have a rematch against the fourth-seeded Vikings of Portland State on Friday in the first round of the tournament. The Vikings could have won the regular season championship with a win against the Hornets in Friday’s game and a Weber State loss or tie in their game last Saturday. Instead, the Vikings now return to Hornet Soccer Field exactly one week later to square off against Sac State one more time.

“They have a pretty young team,” Dedini said. “But (it’s) definitely good enough to beat anybody in our conference.”

The Hornets won three consecutive games against the Vikings dating back to the 2005 season. Dedini said the Hornets prevented Portland State from qualifying for the tournament in both 2005 and 2006 with late-season victories, and that the Vikings might be looking for “a little payback.”

The other tournament match-up will be between the Wildcats of Weber State and the Northern Colorado Bears.

Weber State is the second-seed in the tournament and has compiled a 7-7-3 record this season. The Wildcats lost a close game to the Hornets 2-1 on Oct. 12 at Hornet soccer field in double overtime. Burton blasted in the winning goal from 10 yards out in the 101st minute to seal the victory.

Dedini said he’d expect a similar game if the Hornets were to face Weber State again in the conference tournament.

“They’re well-coached. They play good soccer,” Dedini said. “They’re not so predictable in the way that they play, so you kind of have to be prepared for anything.”

“They’re very similar to our team. They have a lot of heart,” Burton said. “Even if they’re down a couple of goals, they won’t give up.”

Sac State is 2-0 against Weber State over the last two seasons.

The third-seeded Bears played their way into the tournament by beating Northern Arizona Saturday. They won 1-0 after scoring the game-winning goal with less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation. This is only the Bears’ second year in the Big Sky Conference and they have never played in the conference tournament.

The Hornets settled for a 1-1 tie against the Bears in Greeley, Colo. on Oct. 26. They are 1-1 all-time against Northern Colorado.

Dedini said he expects tough games no matter who, the Hornets face.

“It’s just so much at stake and so much on the line,” Dedini said. “You usually get the best out of both teams in a match like that.”

For the seniors, like Burton and McCoy, this will be the last chance for a conference title after years of hard work.

“We’ve been working for the past three to four years to be a part of the rebuilding of this team,” Burton said. “I think we would deserve to leave this year with a ring.”

And both players said this is the team that can finish the job and win the first tournament title in the program’s history.

“I’ve been here when (the team) was horrible,” Burton said. “And now this is the best I’ve ever seen it.”

“In the past we’ve had good teams, like last year and the year before,” McCoy said. “But this team’s special.”

Kemper said the players understand what the seniors have done for the team, and want to send them out on top.

“They’ve turned this program around. They’ve gone through it all,” Kemper said. “We don’t want them to go out without having a win in the conference (tournament).”

“(The players) love our seniors,” Dedini said. “Nobody’s going to play at anything less than 100 percent for those girls.”

The Hornets will face Portland State at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Hornet soccer field. The game will follow Weber State and Northern Colorado’s match at 11 a.m.

The winners of each game will then play in the championship at 11 a.m. on Sunday. The tournament champion will earn a spot in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championships.

Fernando Gallo can be reached at [email protected]