COSTA MESA, Calif. – Ashlynn Hill saved Dominican women's soccer postseason hopes as she scored with 18 seconds left on the clock to earn a 2-2 draw with Vanguard Thursday afternoon at VU Soccer Complex.

For Hill it was the second goal of her season off assists from Jenna Pevenage and Araceli Mejia. Grace Plessinger scored the other goal for the Penguins (8-1-8, 4-1-4 PacWest), the first of her career, while Michelle Salas Viniegra made four saves in the net. Rachel Penick and Francesca Lindstrom each scored for the Lions (5-7-3, 3-4-2 PacWest) who saw their last hopes for a berth into the PacWest championships dashed by the loss.

After falling behind 2-0, things looked bleak for Dominican as they entered the final 15 minutes of the game. Megan Clapinski used her speed to eat up space down the center of the field in the 78th minute before playing a ball across the top of the box where Araceli Mejia dummied a touch to spring Plessinger free behind her and Plessinger put the ball off the far post and deflecting back inside the near post to make it 2-1. The time continued to peel off the clock and the desperation grew. Salas Viniegra quickly played a goal kick with 35 seconds left forward to Pevenage who played the ball down the right side to Araceli Mejia who took two touches before placing a perfectly weighted ball to Hill inside the box with a defender on her back and she settled the ball and shot back post to beat the keeper and earn the draw.



Dominican had the first real scoring opportunity of the day as Shulien Kemmler Liu put a shot low and towards the left in the fifth minute, but Josselyne Navarrete made the save to keep the game level. The game fell into a midfield battle for nearly 25 minutes when Vanguard seized momentum first as Rachel Penick sealed a defender on her hip before turning and firing top shelf and inside the far post to take a 1-0 lead in the 31st minute. The Lions continued to possess in the Penguins defensive third earning four corner kicks with several more shots to end the half but could inflict no further damage. 

The Lions pushed the lead to two goals in the 69th minute after Salas Viniegra was unable to gather a bouncing ball in her box allowing Francesca Linstrom to pick it up and score on an empty net for the 2-0 lead. Dominican's back line picked up their keeper for the final 20 minutes limiting chances on the goal and Salas Viniegra did her part with a save on the only chance form distance that Vanguard could manage.

Dominican will have one last chance to propel itself out of a tie with multiple teams and into the tournament field Saturday as it travels up the Southern California coast to take on Westmont in Santa Barbara with an 11 a.m. PST kickoff.