TURLOCK – Megan Tabler and Lindsay Dias knew the plan all along. A little heads up may have saved the Chico State women's soccer team's fans and Head Coach Kim Sutton a lot of tense moments.
 
Stephanie Vaquerano was pulled down a couple yards outside the 18-yard box, setting up what amounted to a short corner for Tabler. The senior hit a perfect cross to the top center of the six-yard box and Dias delivered the golden goal with a perfectly placed header in the 103^rd minute, giving the Wildcats to a 1-0 victory over Cal Poly Pomona in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament semifinals at Warrior Field in Turlock.
 

"The last time we played the Broncos we had a similar goal where Megan hit a free kick from about 30 yards out that I got my head on it. So before the game we talked about 'Lets do it again. Me and you. Lets figure it out'," said Dias. " So when that free kick got called I just felt like I knew it was coming to me."
 
"I'm on cloud nine right now. This was really a team effort and I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time for the game winner."
 
Lucky? Perhaps. Prepared? Absolutely.
 
"We knew we scored that way against them last time, so we watched the film again last night to see what the defense was doing and how we could exploit it," said Tabler. "I saw a gap there as I lined up over the ball. I've been working on hitting the ball where I see that gap and letting my teammates do the rest, and Lindsey did."
 
The assist was the 13^th of Tabler's career, tying her for 10^th in program history.
 
The Wildcats advance to the CCAA Championship Tournament title match Sunday at 12:30 as a result. They'll take on conference regular-season champion Cal State L.A., a 3-0 winner against Sonoma State in the second semifinal match Friday.
 
The winner will receive an automatic berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament. The match will be streamed live at warriorathletics.com/warriortv.
 
Chico State improved to 12-4-2 with its sixth straight win while adding another line to its NCAA Championship Tournament resume. The Wildcats are ranked No. 7 in the West Regional rankings. The winners of the CCAA and Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship Tournaments, and Pacific West Conference champ Point Loma, will automatically advance to the NCAAs. They'll be joined by three at-large teams.
 
The Wildcats are now 5-4-1 against teams ranked among the region's top 10, including 4-2 against teams in the top five. If they don't win on Sunday they'll have to wait until the field is announced Monday at 4 p.m.
 

"The pressure's been on us for so many weeks holding onto second in our conference and we've handled that pretty well. The team's really grown and matured through that process," said Sutton. "Today I think the nerves got to them a little bit, whether it was just the tournament environment or the pressure of trying to win a conference championship they want so badly. It's a big game, certainly for the NCAAs. We're trying not to focus on that too much, but it's all part of the picture for sure."
 
The Wildcats were outshot 18-11 in the match, but Brianna Furner made eight saves (only a pair of shots that were especially threatening) for her ninth shutout of the season and her school-record tying 40^th career win.
 
"It's a dream come true, honestly," said Furner of the record. "I never expected the career I've had. But it's a tribute to our coaching staff and the players on the field. It's taken a lot of great players."
 
NOTE - Sutton will be featured on the latest installment of Comcast Hometown Network's "Game On" tonight on channel 104 at 7 p.m.