By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director 

College of the Canyons, ranked No. 12, will begin the postseason on the road vs. No. 5 San Diego Mesa College Saturday, Nov. 20, at 2:00 p.m., in the opening round of the CCCAA Southern California Regionals, as the Cougars look to extend on the success of winning the program’s 12th conference title.

Canyons (13-4-1, 10-1-1), the Western State Conference (WSC), South Division champions, is competing in the postseason for a 10th straight year. The 2021 title was the program’s first since 2017.

The Cougars closed out the regular season on a five-game win streak. COC netted 56 goals on the season and posted nine shutouts between goalkeepers Kylie Yuzon and Zoe MacDonald.

Canyons freshman Rebekah Brooks ranked third in the conference with 18 goals and 40 points. Freshman Lauryn Bailey was second on the squad with nine goals and sophomore Maggie Maldonado was third with six. Freshman Katie Russell had seven assists to lead the Cougars. Brooks was next with four.

San Diego Mesa (14-2-2, 13-0-1) ended the regular season as champions of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC). The title was the program’s seventh in the last eight years.

The Olympians’ attack was paced by Audrey Reed’s 21 goals and three assists. Valeria Vargas added 12 goals and eight assists. Jillian Kaplan also had nine scoring touches.

Full 2021 Southern California and Northern California Regional playoff brackets are posted at CCCAAsports.org.

The 19-team Northern and Southern California brackets with both feature a trio of play-in games beginning Thursday, Nov. 18. From there, the final 16 teams from each region will begin play on Saturday, Nov. 20.

The final four from each region will meet at the state championships in Walnut on Dec. 3 and 5.

General admission to Saturday’s game at San Diego Mesa is $12 and $8 for students, faculty, staff, senior citizens 60 and over, and children younger than 12. Please check the Olympians’ Athletic website for further details including game day gate access.