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Defense was the name of the game on Friday as the Lancers women’s soccer team and the Mt. SAC Mounties held each other to a scoreless draw at Mt. SAC.

There was a moment in the first half during the scoreless draw against Mt. SAC, that Taylor Gore saved a certain goal from going into the Lancers net.

While it was a great play, it was not until later, when neither team had scored, that the importance of that save became apparent.

The Mounties curled in a corner kick and it was headed toward the far post.  Goal Keeper Tatiana Sanchez dived for the ball, and it was past her fingers heading toward the back of the net but Gore was in place to keep it out.

“My position is to … mark the goal post,” said Gore.  “So some girl headed it in, Tatiana went for the save, but it went right past her. So I stomached the ball the best that I could to just get it out of there.”

One of the big reasons the Lancers were able to stay in the game, was the performance of Goal Keeper Sanchez.  Over and over again, she was able to beat the Mounties to the ball, be it in a break-away, or from a cross.

With just a few minutes to play Sanchez again put her body on the line for the Lancers once again, leaping into, and colliding with, a group of players trying for a corner kick. She grabbed the ball and fell to the ground injured.  It was a few minutes before she was able to climb back to her feet and continue the game.

“We just all went hard for the ball,” said Sanchez about the play.  “I had to go all out, I don’t mind getting injured if it’s for the team.”

“The game was one of the most intense,” said Sanchez. “It was heartfelt by both teams. I was just really proud of everyone on my team, we gave it our all.”

Going into the game both teams had the same conference record (6-2-3), and both teams were in second place in their conference, so they were fighting for bragging rights.  But both teams are searching for a playoff berth, and the calculation for that is not based entirely on the team’s record, but on their ‘Power Ranking.’

The mathematics behind power rankings is complicated (more details below).

With power rankings things can become a little convoluted.  Mt. SAC has the same conference record as Pasadena, but Mt. SAC is in fourth place with a power ranking of 2.2632, while Pasadena is in 18th spot with a power ranking 1.9079.

Playoff spots are for the top 18 teams of all 47 teams in Southern California.

With two games left to play, Pasadena is teetering on the edge of the playoffs.

On Tuesday Pasadena play at home against Cerritos at 3 p.m.  Cerritos is ranked number one, not just in conference, but in Southern California so it will be a tough game.  The last game of the season is at home on Friday as Pasadena plays ECC Compton at 5:30 p.m.

What do Pasadena have to do to make the playoffs?  Coach Randy Lilavois has a simple answer to a complicated question: “Win,” he said.
Calculating Power Rankings
The mathematics to qualify for the Southern California Community College Women’s Soccer playoffs is complicated.

They use normal win-lose-draw tables for the season, but ‘Power Rankings’ to decide who gets into the playoffs.  All games, not just conference games count in power rankings.

Here is how to calculate the ‘Power Ranking’ for each team.

It begins before each game, where each team has its winning percentage calculated.

The winning percentage is calculated like this:  (number of wins) multiplied by (number of ties cut in half) divided by number of games.

The numbers show the winning percentage:  .750 or .500 or .333.

How many points the team receives at the end of each game is calculated on what they do in the game, and how good the team is they are playing.

If they win and they are playing against a team that has a better than .750 winning percentage the winning team receives 2 points.

If they win and are playing a team that has a winning percentage between .500 and .750 then the winning team receives 1.5 points.  And so on down the line.

It is similar for ties.  A tie against a winning team is 1 point, against a medium team .75 points, and so on…

But that’s not all.

Teams will receive bonus points for winning or tying away games, .3 for a win, .2 for a tie, etc…

And for some reason they get a point for each game played.

Now divide all these points by the number of games played.

That is the ‘Power Ranking’ number.

The top 18 teams of Southern California get into the playoffs.

For all the numbers the full rules visit:

http://www.cccaasports.org/soccer/women/    then click on ‘Championship Handbook,’ pages 13-15 have the information about calculating ‘Power Rankings.’

 

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