IRVINE, Calif. -- At the conclusion of the fall season, Azusa Pacific is in first place in the Commissioner's Cup standings with an average score of 12 points followed closely by Biola with 11.6, Point Loma at 11.1 and Concordia at 10.4 going into the start of the basketball season.
The Commissioner's Cup is awarded annually to the PacWest's most successful school on the field of competition based on a formula that assigns points to each team based on where it finished in the conference standings. Each school is then ranked by the average score of each of its teams in PacWest-sponsored sports. Through the fall season, five of the 15 PacWest champions have been crowned, meaning there are ten sports left to determine this year's Commissioner's Cup winner.
The Commissioner's Cup has not been awarded since the 2018-19 academic year since COVID-19 forced seasons to be canceled over the last two years. Azusa Pacific is the reigning Commissioner's Cup winner. Hawai`i Pacific has won the award twice and Hawai`i Hilo won the first Commissioner's Cup in 2007-08.
Six different schools were represented among the PacWest Champions from the fall season with Chaminade winning volleyball, Academy of Art women's cross country, Fresno Pacific men's cross country and Azusa Pacific men's soccer, while Point Loma and Hawai`i Hilo were co-champions for women's soccer. This is the first time since the conference expanded into Southern California that each of the conference's three scheduling pods have won an equal number of conference titles in the fall season.
Along with winning the men's soccer title for the third year in a row, Azusa Pacific finished second in men's cross country, which was the best finish in program history. The Cougars also took third place in women's cross country, fourth in women's soccer and fifth in volleyball. This is the first time that Azusa Pacific has been in first place in the Commissioner Cup standings at the conclusion of the fall season.
Biola was in first place in the PacWest standings after the fall of 2019 and is now in second place with none of the Eagles' five teams finishing lower than fifth place. The Eagles had runner-up finishes in women's cross country and volleyball, which is the best finish in either program's history. Biola took third place in men's soccer as well in order to help put the Eagles on pace to surpass their best finish of fourth place in the Commissioner's Cup.
Point Loma has won the women's soccer title three years in a row and also finished in second place in men's soccer to take third place in the Commissioner's Cup standings. Concordia is not far behind in the standings after finishing in fifth place or better in all five sports. The Eagles took third place in women's soccer and volleyball, which were Concordia's best finishes during the spring. Concordia has finished in third place in each of the last three seasons that the Commissioner's Cup was awarded.
Hawai`i Hilo is in fifth place with a score of 9.13 after the Vulcans won a share of the PacWest title in women's soccer. They are followed by Fresno Pacific with a score of 7.7 with the help of a conference title in men's cross country.
Academy of Art, now in seventh place with a score of 7.1, was atop the standings following the cross country season since the men took fourth place, while the women won the title. Hawai`i Pacific is right behind in eighth place at 7.0 points followed by Chaminade in ninth with 5.2 points. Chaminade's volleyball team is the last fall sports team still competing with the Silverswords beginning the NCAA West Regional tomorrow. Dominican and Holy Names round out the standings for the Commissioner's Cup.