10-2-9, 6-2-2
No. 5 Seed UC Santa Barbara
13-5-5, 5-2-3
Mustangs Capture First Big West Championship in 21 Years, Secure Bid to NCAA Tourney
11/9/2025 8:00:00 PM | Women's Soccer
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — A moment over two decades in the making.
For the first time in 21 years, the Cal Poly women’s soccer team is headed to the NCAA Tournament, defeating Blue-Green rival and No. 5 seed UC Santa Barbara 1-0 in the Big West Championship match on Sunday to secure an automatic bid to the big dance.
It’s the Mustangs fourth Big West tournament title overall and first since the 2004 season when Cal Poly took down the Gauchos 2-0 for the conference championship and went on to fall to Stanford in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament 2-0 in Santa Clara.
First-year head coach Bernardo Silva, who previously served as an assistant on the Cal Poly coaching staff from 2013-16, found a way to galvanize the Mustangs in his first season at the helm and help the program bring home conference glory.
“Just incredibly proud of this group, and I think a statement win for Cal Poly 2.0 … in terms of being a team regionally and nationally that gets the respect we all want it to have,” he said.
Now the red-hot Mustangs (10-2-9), riding a seven-match unbeaten streak (6-0-1), will wait to see who they will face in the First Round of this year’s NCAA Tournament when the full 64-team field is announced during a selection show on NCAA.com at 1 p.m. PST Monday. A watch party for the NCAA Selection Show is being held at the Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex and Mustang fans are encouraged to come out and show their support for the team.
Emotions were high and celebrations were aplenty as the second-seeded Mustangs ended their Big West Championship drought on CSUN’s Matador Soccer Field on Sunday. Redshirt junior midfielder and team captain Sophia Minnite — the unsung hero for the Mustangs all season long — said it felt surreal to raise that Big West trophy, but she was confident the team would get the job done due to their preparation.
“I knew that when we stepped on this field we were going to win this game because I could just feel the energy and everyone’s belief in each other,” Minnite said.
In a match that saw the Mustangs dominant the second half and senior forward and team captain Jessie Halladay register six shots in the final 45 minutes, Cal Poly finally broke through with just 1:55 left in the match to secure a dramatic championship victory — the fourth latest regulation go-ahead goal in program history.
Sophomore defender Ava Mirelez threaded a pass from the midfield into the box to junior forward Annika Smith, who turned and sent the ball over to Halladay. The Los Gatos, Calif. native then crossed up a UCSB defender and blasted home a shot to propel Cal Poly to a Big West Championship.
“We just kept pushing,” Silva said about the team’s relentlessness down the stretch. “Obviously as a coach, when you maximize player potential and that is your No. 1 philosophy in coaching, big dogs show up in big time moments.”
The championship game-winner from Halladay coupled with her game-winning penalty kick goal in the 1-0 Big West semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton on Thursday allowed her to be crowned the Big West Championship MVP. She is just the third Mustang ever to win the award, joining Liz Hill (2004) and Sharon Day-Monroe (2003).
“I wouldn’t want to be with any other team at any other program because it’s more than just a game,” Halladay said after the match. “Here we’re taught about life, and I’ll just have memories forever to look back on and smile and cry about.”
Halladay’s goal was her Big West leading ninth of the season and she now has 22 points (most in the conference) on the year, tied for the 16th most in a season by a player in program history.
“What an incredible match, two incredible teams that have had two incredible years,” Silva said. "We had a fantastic execution of a scout by our amazing players.”
Smith, the Big West Offensive Player of the Year, registered her fourth assist of the season and 18th point of the year on the tally, tied for the third most in the Big West.
Cal Poly finished with a 10-7 shot advantage in the match, and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Shannon Porubski made two saves to secure her ninth clean sheet of the season. It was also the Mustangs’ 10th shutout of the season, tied for the team’s fifth most shutouts in the 34-year history of the program and most since posting 10 during the 2022 season when they won their first outright Big West regular season in nine years.
Last year, Silva came up short to UCSB in the Big West Championship final while serving as the head coach at Cal State Bakersfield, falling 8-7 in penalties. This year, Silva, a 2011 UCSB grad, was able to raise the trophy and knock off the defending champions in his first season at a place he wants to make his forever home.
“All the stops have prepared me for a moment like this,” he said. “Cal Poly is my home, Cal Poly is my dream job. I love this place, I love this team … this is a place where we’re going to build a powerhouse and this is the first statement that we’re making as a group on what Cal Poly 2.0 is all about.”
Minnite said all the work the team put in during the winter and spring paid off this fall.
“It was definitely a grind from day one from the first day that coach Bernardo joined us in January,” she said. “We had this goal, and we set out and did everything in our ability to get to this moment and I’m just so proud of the team. It was definitely a journey … the culture that we built won us this game.”
Cal Poly improved to 3-0-1 all-time against the Gauchos in the Big West Championship final with Sunday’s victory and 4-4-2 overall in the title match, winning it all in 1996, 2003 and 2004 as well. The Mustangs are set to make their sixth appearance all-time in the Division I NCAA Tournament, with 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004 being the other occasions.
“We’ve worked so hard to be in this position … and we’re not done,” Silva said. “Wherever the NCAA chooses to send us, we’ll scout, we’ll respect the opponent and we’ll be prepared to represent the Big West on the national stage.”
In addition to Halladay’s Big West Championship MVP, Minnite, Smith and senior defender and Big West Defensive Player of the Year Brennan Cole were all named to the first-ever Big West All-Tournament Team for women’s soccer.
“I want to dedicate this win to the Cal State Fullerton crew,” Silva added. “We love that staff, we love that team, and they’ve had an incredibly challenging year, and this victory is dedicated to them, to Lauren Turner and her family and to Ashlyn Gwynn and her family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
Team Stats
Jessie Halladay (9)
Assisted By: Annika Smith , Ava Mirelez
3 with a through ball through the center, 44 cross to 25, 25 finishes center box.
88:05
