The UWS kicked off a weekend of semi-finals and finals July 22-23 in Santa Clarita, CA, hosted by the 4-time West Division Champions the Santa Clarita Blue Heat. Both semi-finals were played on Saturday, both kept it real close until the final whistle - the Final was played on Sunday.

The first semi-final match Michigan Jaguars FC versus Sporting CT saw Jaguars take an early 1-0 lead in the 19th minute from a goal by Amalia Villarreal. Sporting’s Sophia McCarthy tied it in the 36th minute. Sofie Atehortua gave Sporting the lead 2-1 for just a minute until Villarreal tied it for the Jaguars 2-2. Villarreal would secure a hat trick when Jaguars took the lead in the 57th minute 3-2. It was smooth sailing for the Jaguars as they added an insurance goal in the 89th minute by Sydney Chura. The Jaguars won the semi-final with a score of 4-2, advancing to the UWS National Championship.

The second semi-final Santa Clarita Blue Heat versus Lancaster Inferno. Anyone watching could tell Inferno was playing for each other and leaving it all on the field. Inferno started out strong, netting the first two goals from Madison Mohr and Taylor Mentzer. The Heat had their quest for three national championship motivating them. Heat didn’t get their first goal until the 84th minute from Ally Lemos, then there was no stopping them. In the 90th minute Zoe Burns tied it 2-2. Not wanting to go to kicks from the mark to determine the outcome of the match Amanda Perez notched the winning goal to put the Heat up 3-2 in stoppage time. Heat progressed to the UWS National Championship match.

The UWS final match between the Jaguars and Heat saw Heat have a home field advantage with a solid crowd that overflowed around the corners of the field. The score was tied 0-0 at halftime. The Jaguars came out with an adjusted game plan to press the Heat defense, taking their chances. Both teams were evenly matched until Heat started to maintain more possession and dominated the second half. Heat had quick transitions to get upfield. In the last seconds before the ref blew the final whistle the Heat had a shot that went off the post. A few inches and the game would have been decided in regulation.

The stats tell the story of the game that there was just one corner kick the whole game for both teams. There was not enough offensive third penetration or wingers taking players one-on-one. The quality was not good enough for either team close to goal.

There was some second half drama that did not come in the form of goals. Substitutions ended up being a deciding factor in the game. Heat subbed off key players in the second half to give them a quick break and re-enter to finish off the game in regulation. The players came back on in the second half with play resuming. The commissioner alerted the AR2 that this violated the substitution policy. The revised 2023 season policy states, “Re-entry of a player is allowed, however a player may not re-enter a match in the same half in which she was previously substituted.” The substitution policy seems to be a mashup of the NCAA and professional substitution policy, new for players and coaching staff. Two Heat players were quickly removed from the game. The game went straight to kicks from the mark with no overtime played. Meaning, only the players on the field could participate in the penalty kicks. Those two key players would undoubtedly have taken the kicks. Both teams scored their kicks in the first round. Both keepers saved their shots on the second round. The third round Heat had their shot saved and Jaguars scored. Round 4 both scored. The Jaguars scored their next and final penalty kick to win their first UWS National Championship with a score of 4-2 on penalty kicks.

Congratulations to the Michigan Jaguars FC!

- by Danielle Gawronski