SAN DIEGO—Point Loma freshman Maddy Saruwatari took a corner kick from Kylie Garcia and bumped it into the back of the net in the 104^th minute to end a dramatic match in dramatic fashion during a 2-1 double overtime win over Dominican.

That gives the Sea Lions the Pacific West Conference tournament championship and the NCAA automatic berth that goes with it. Point Loma, now 10-3-5, will find out where they travel to for the NCAA West Regional on Monday.

Point Loma has now won back-to-back tournament titles, and they won in 2024 in overtime as well.

“We played really well against a great opponent,” said PLNU head coach Kristy Kiely. “Our players were courageous, stepping into the moment and doing everything that they needed to do.”

Part of what both teams had to do was wait out an uncertain situation that was caused by very inclement weather. The match got pushed back an hour from its original start time because of very heavy rains and even stronger winds.

It was still raining at kickoff, but the weather ultimately calmed and most of the match was played under cloudy and sunny skies.

Point Loma got on the board first in he 38^th minute when Kylee Jerome, who had just come off the bench two minutes earlier, took a pass from Lily Larez, made a couple of dribbles and then sent a rocket into the net from about 30 yards out.

That 1-0 lead looked like it might stand the rest of the match, until it didn’t. With just under nine minutes to play, Dominican got into the scoring column when Jenna Pevenage gathered a cross from Janae Schwan and headed it into the goal. That sent the Penguins into celebration and sent the match into overtime.

Both teams had shots in the first overtime but no one scored. In the second sudden death overtime period, Dominican had a shot about 30 seconds in that sailed just over the bar.

But the match suddenly ended at 103:40 when Garcia’s corner kick found Saruwatari in the middle of a mass of people near the box, and the freshman somehow pushed the ball into the net. This time it was Point Loma's turn to celebrate with a big dog pile near the goal. 

Saruwatari was named the tournament Most Valuable Player and PLNU defender Zoe Crockett was named the Most Valuable Defender.

Dominican wraps up a Cinderella season at 9-2-9. The Penguins hadn’t lost since early October on the way to climbing into the tournament. In the preseason, they were picked to finish in eighth place, but won an epic match on Thursday via penalty kicks over Azusa Pacific, and took today’s championship into overtime before final succumbing.

“It was an amazing year, I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” said Dominican head coach Kelly Coffey. “This is a program builder and we will continue to grow from here.”