HILO, Hawaii--Everything about the match between No. 2 seed Concordia and No. 3 seed Hawaii Hilo screamed overtime for the first 83 minutes. 

In a battle between two of the best defensive teams in the conference, the Golden Eagles broke through with the game's lone goal at 83:03 on a long shot from Sarah Venegas to hand the host Vulcans a 1-0 loss and to send themselves to Saturday's championship match against No. 4 seed Biola, who upset No. 1 Point Loma earlier in the day, 2-0.

Concordia, ranked No. 3 in the NCAA West Region, will move to Saturday's bout with a 11-2-4 record. Hawaii Hilo, listed No. 8 in the west, is now 9-3-4 and will have to wait out the results of the weekend in the west to see if their postseason hopes can stay alive.

When these two teams met on Sept. 26 in the regular season, they battled to a 0-0 tie. It was more of the same today, but with playoff overtime looming until Venegas' improbable shot.

Venegas was on the far left sideline and lobbed a ball high and ultimately deep that cleared the defense and a leaping Lydia Keller, the Hilo goalkeeper, at an incrediable angle that somehow found the back of the net. The stunning shot was just enough for the victory, as the Golden Eagles then took the air out of the ball and managed to get to 90 minutes without a truly dangerous Hilo shot.

There was plenty of dangerous opportunities earlier.

After a scoreless first half that saw few shots, four total on goal between the two squads, the second half saw more action offensively.

During a time span of about four minutes at the 60th minute, Hilo peppered CUI goalkeeper Christina Sidoti with shots. Elise Flores banged a shot off the post and two other shots came close but Sidoti saved each one. In the 69th and 70th minutes Mia Berney fired two balls at Sidoti--one went off the cross bar and the other was grabbed the Golden Eagle keeper. 

At the other end of the field, Keller made a diving stop of a shot by Ashley Grubert in a 1-on-1 situation in the 79th minute. With extra time looming, Venegas stunned everyone at the UH Hilo Soccer Field with her shot that looked like a cross but carried past everyone for the score. 

The final stats were virtually even with Hilo showing a 13-11 shot advantage and the teams were even in shots on goal at 6-6. CUI had seven corner kicks to three for Hilo. Sidoti finished with six saves and Keller had five.

Hilo, who was unbeaten in PacWest play at 6-0-3, saw their 10-match unbeaten streak come to an end. Concordia has now won eight of their last nine matches.

quotes coming...