SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--No. 1 seed Hawaii Pacific came into today's PacWest Championship semifinal match as the top defensive team in the conference. During their 2-0 win over No. 4 seed Dominican, they showed just why.

The Sharks will move on to Saturday's title match against the winner of our next game between #2 seed Vanguard and #3 Westmont. Start time will be noon.

HPU got goals from Kelly Takara and Paul Norberg to provide all the offense that they would need. That wasn't for lack of effort by host Dominican, who peppered HPU goalkeeper Eduardo Marin with plenty of shots throughout the match. The Penguins fired 17 times, 11 of them on goal, all of which were saved by Marin. That is a season-high save total for for the graduate transfer from Santa Clara, who yesterday was named the PacWest Goalkeeper of the Year.

The Sharks have given up two total goals in their last five matches. They will head to Saturday's championship with a 9-5-3 record, while Dominican's season ends at 6-7-4.

Marin had his first save just three minutes into the match. Dominican had another launch go off the cross bar at 11 minutes and Marin made another save two minutes later with a tip above the goal. 

With no score yet on the board, it appeared that HPU got one in the 23rd minute, but the score was waved off after a Dominican challenge, contending that the keeper Colin Nestor was bumped off his position. But the Sharks came right back moments later when Takara took a pass from a streaking Jackson Palladino on the right side, stepped past his defender and popped a shot across to the other side of the goal to make it 1-0. 

Before the end of the half, Dominican had a great opportunity with a 1-on-1 situation, but Marin came out of the goal and blocked the shot. He save another ball moments later to keep the score at 1-0 heading into halftime. 

The Penguins kept up that same offensive pace after the break. Marin had to save two balls just moments into the second half and had another in the 52nd minute. 

But HPU put even bigger pressure on with an insurance goal in the 60th minute. This time it was Norberg at the top of the box, after an excellent pass from Felix Leins from the left side. Norberg fired it into the upper right corner of the net past a diving Nestor to add serious damage to DUC's hopes against a very good defensive team. 

Nonetheless the Penguins had more opportunities but all were squashed by either Marin or the Sharks defense. Over the last part of the half, HPU played ball control and they did it well to help run out the clock. 

Dominican finished with a 17-12 shot advantage, including 11-6 in shots on goal. The Sharks had seven corner kicks to three for Dominican. 

The Sharks will now await their opponent in either the Lions or Warriors. The winner of the title match earns the PacWest's automatic berth into the NCAA West Region tournament. 

QUOTES COMING.