It's tough to have to play a team four times in a season. In a rematch of the CCAA Championship match, the Warriors' season came down to penalty kick shootout after Chico State and Cal State Stanislaus battled to a 1-1 tie on Friday.
Chico State converted on four of its five chances in the shootout, and edged the Warriors 4-3, to advance to Sunday's match against host UC San Diego.
Cal State Stanislaus' season came to an abrupt end as they completed the historic season 11-4-6 overall with a California Collegiate Athletic Association championship.
"We played well tonight we just didn't finish our chances. It could have easily been 3-0 in the first 20 minutes," CSUS head coach Gabriel Bolton said. "I'm very proud of our season. These women are champions in every sense of the word."
During the shootout, Allison Case's shot was saved by Chico goalkeeper Brianna Furner prior to Carly Singer's conversion for the Wildcats. The Warriors' second shot, by Marissa Dunaway, went high but Millie Brown evened the score when she blocked an attempt by Megan Tabler.
Liz Scherrer, Lauren Thornton and Jessica Cervantes' shots were all good to give the Warriors three successful attempts. However, Chico State matched each Warrior goal, capped by Molly Downtain's final shot that sealed the deal for Chico State.
Demery connected with Dunaway again for the Warriors' first goal at 8:16 in the first half. Dunaway's long through ball found Demery, who beat the goalkeeper for the score to the left post. The Demery-Dunaway scoring combo accounted for two Stanislaus goals last Sunday during the CCAA Championship match.
It was Demery's sixth goal against Chico State this season, fourth of the postseason. Demery scored five goals in three matches this postseason.
Chico State tied the score just before the end of the first half. Downtain headed in a Blake Lopes corner kick at 42:57 to tie the score at 1-1. It was the first goal the Warriors had allowed in 362 minutes of play.
The Warriors had a great chance in the 75th minute with Demery posting up in the box waiting for a service. She was wrapped around by a defender and pulled down but no call was made.
With just a little over four minutes left to play in the second overtime, an Alexia Poon shot hit the right post.
Offensively, Stanislaus was aggressive as normal. The Warriors out-shot Chico State, 16-10, in the match but Furner had five saves. Demery took five of the Warriors' six shots on goal.
Defensively, the Warriors again locked down the Wildcats and gave up very little to their opponents except for the one corner kick.
"Defensively we played very well. We didn't give up much at all in the run of play," Bolton added.
Cal State Stanislaus had faced Chico State three previous times this season with the Warriors beating the Wildcats twice in Turlock and a tie in Chico. Just five days earlier, the Warriors beat the Wildcats 4-0 to win their first conference championship only to be paired up against their rivals again.
Downtain was beat - and out-jumped - by Demery time after time again last Sunday at Warrior Stadium, but the senior defender, who is making her third trip to the NCAA Champions made the difference for the Warriors on Friday.