By A score by Stanford’s BJ Churnside with :15 remaining in the final period of Sunday’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation final dashed the hopes of Long Beach State. A conference championship would have secured for the fourth-ranked ‘Niners an automatic bid to NCAA Championships in two weeks time. Instead, Stanford overcame the partisan Long Beach crowd and a two-goal deficit to barely hold off the upstarts and earn a place in NCAAs.
Despite the electrifying finish to their season the 49ers were then denied on Monday an at-large bid to the title tournament in favor of six-time defending champions USC. The field is now set for La Jolla where Whittier College, Brown University, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and hosts UC San Diego will vie for the NCAA trophy.
Once again, Gazettes Sports shares the highlights.
