The Chico State women's soccer team is back in the postseason for the seventh time in 11 seasons after clinching a California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament berth with a 1-0 win against Cal State Monterey Bay on Senior Day Sunday at University Soccer Stadium.

CLICK HERE FOR DANA SHIVELY'S PHOTO GALLERY OF THE DAY'S FESTIVITIES
 
Katie Woodrum scored on a 71^st-minute penalty kick, set up when Lindsey Dias was taken down in the box by the goalkeeper after a great pass from Shelby Lanksbury, to end the Wildcats' two-year postseason drought.
 
The last time the Wildcats made the postseason, in 2011, they made a magical run to the NCAA Championship Tournament Final Four. Current seniors Megan Tabler, Halima Abdelshife, Torri Sims and Brianna Furner were key contributors to that team as freshmen.
 
They have visions of doing something similar this season. Chico State, now 10-4-2 overall and 7-2-1 in the CCAA, entered the weekend ranked No. 7 in the NCAA West Region rankings and in third place in the CCAA standings. They moved up to second in the CCAA with two shutout wins this weekend (running their consecutive shutout win streak to four).
 
They'll wrap up the regular season at home against Cal State San Bernardino Thursday night at 7.
 

• The Wildcats enter Thursday's match in second place, one point ahead of Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona. A win would wrap up a first-round bye for the Wildcats, as would a tie and Cal Poly Pomona tie or loss against first-place Cal State L.A. Thursday. Cal State L.A. has wrapped up the regular-season conference title and first-round bye.
• If the Wildcats finish second they'll open the postseason in the second round of the CCAA Championship Tournament Nov. 7 in Turlock. 
• If Chico State does not finish in second place, it will finish third or fourth and host a first-round CCAA Championship Tournament match next Sunday. 

 

• The champions of the Pacific West Conference regular season and Great Northwest Athletic Conference and CCAA Championship Tournaments will receive automatic bids to the NCAA Championship Tournament. They'll be joined by the next three highest-ranked teams. The next Regional Rankings will be released Wednesday.
• Abdelshife, Tabler, Sims, Furner and Stephanie Vaquerano were honored during Senior Day ceremonies prior to Sunday's match. 
• They went home happy thanks to another strong performance from the back line and Brianna Furner's fourth consecutive shutout and eighth of the season. 

 

The Wildcats tested Otters goalkeeper Sydney Roller all match long, and she was up to the task for much of the time. But Roller ran over Dias leading to the match-winning 71^st-minute penalty kick.
 
Shelby Lanksbury set up the play by playing a ball from the right flank near midfield over the top to Dias, who beat everyone to the ball and headed it toward the goal. But she was quickly tackled by Roller, who was charging forward in an attempt to beat Dias to the ball. She reached high to try to deflect the ball and came up empty before crashing into Dias and drawing a penalty.
 
Woodrum made it count, cracking a low liner into the right corner with too much pass for Roller to reach.
 
It was the Wildcats' ninth shot on goal and 11^th shot of the match. The Chico State defense limited Cal State Monterey Bay to nine shots and only four on goal.