The target is on the Sea Lions’ back in 2016. After winning the last two PacWest Conference titles, and going 22-2-1 in league play over that stretch, Point Loma is clearly in the sites of its PacWest opponents this season as everyone will be gunning to take down the Sea Lions. Under the guidance of two-time defending PacWest Coach of the Year Tim Hall, PLNU is focused on internal improvement to take the next step forward as a program, which would result in a bid to the NCAA West Regional for the third straight season.
 
Schedule
Hall has compiled a competitive non-conference schedule in order to prepare his team for the competition they hope to face in the postseason. PLNU will play UCSD, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State LA, Cal State San Marcos and Southern Nazarene University in non-conference play. Last season UCSD won the CCAA Tournament for the ninth time to earn a spot in the NCAA Regional. CSULA also competed in the CCAA Tournament and SNU played for their league tournament championship. To see the Sea Lions’ complete 2016 schedule click here. 
“I’ve been at this long enough to know that regardless of who you play, soccer is a crazy game and it can be a challenge,” said coach Hall. “We’re going to have a very stiff (non-conference) schedule.” Defending their PacWest title
Last season, the Point Loma women’s soccer team repeated as PacWest Champions after posting a record of 11-2-0 in league play. The Sea Lions became the first PacWest women’s soccer team since California Baptist in 2011 and 2012 to win back-to-back championships, and they hope to make it three straight in 2016.
“As a coach preparing my players, I tell them, you’re going to have teams looking at you and wanting to come after you,” Hall explained. “We desire to live in that realm, but we also know that our conference is very tough, and every single team we play is going to be a battle. There are no freebies in this conference.”
 
Returners
The team returns 16 letterwinners from last season, including eight starters. Morgan Pearce, the first NCAA All-American in the history of the Point Loma women’s soccer program, will be back as a defensive mid. Also back will be All-West Region selections Ariel Oriarte, Keagan Bolibol, and Rachel Witz, along with All-PacWest picks Sami Swanson and Easton Kawawaki.
 “Tactically they deeply understand our system,” said Hall about his returners. “They know what it means to be a student-athlete at Point Loma, so we have a really good grasp on what we expect from our girls based on the ability of our returners to do it so well on and off the field.”
 
Newcomers
Coach Hall added eight newcomers to round out the team for this year, seven of which will come in as freshmen. These student-athletes will provide depth to the team and be the new wave of Sea Lions for fans to enjoy over the next four years.
“We feel like there are three or four girls that will make an impact right away,” Hall said of his newcomers. “One of the beauties of this year is that we don’t need any of them to make an impact right away, because our core returners are solid, but we think they will. I personally love the quality of people that they are, because that’s very important to what we want to recruit here to Point Loma.”
 
Defense
Under the guidance of coach Hall, defense has been the identity on which his teams pride themselves. Last year the PLNU defensive unit ranked fifth in NCAA Division II with a .420 goals against average. Additionally, PLNU shutout its opponents in 12 of 19 contests and ranked and ranked 10th in the country with a .632 shutout percentage. The Sea Lions look to continue to build its identity on the defensive side of the ball in 2016.
“Defense is one area that we are going to be very intentional about being strong in and we’ve got the personnel here to do it,” explained Hall. “The predominant strength of last year’s defense is all coming back and they already know the system. We’ve got all those returners that are coming back and we have some newcomers that I believe maybe have the ability to break (into the rotation).” Offense
PLNU has been solid offensively in years past but are always looking for new and creative ways to put the ball in the net. In 2014 and 2015 the team outscored its opponents 43-6 in PacWest play, and this year the Sea Lions return most of their offensive unit from 2015, including 10 of its top 11 scorers.  
“Offensively we had a great spring with some of our girls that have developed into better attacking players,” coach Hall said of the team’s offense. “I think we’re going to be stronger on the attack side of the game this year. We’re more creative on the offensive side of the ball and I hope that our output of scoring goals increases significantly this year.”
 
Strengths
Defense has been the predominant strength of Point Loma’s women’s soccer program in years past as evident by their top 10 national finishes in both goals against average (fifth, .420) and shutout percentage (10th, .632). However, the team’s biggest strength is not measured in numbers.
“Chemistry is always a big one for Point Loma,” said Hall. “These girls are genuinely friends on and off the field. They care about each other. Many of the ladies are into faith and they want to live their lives authentically that way, which doesn’t ever hurt a community when it’s done well. I think that’s something that also makes this team successful on the field.”
 
Weaknesses
Soccer is a game where anything can happen on the field. There are always unpredictable elements in competition.
“There’s always (the element of) being human, and that’s me too,” said Hall. “When you get young people all together competing, sore, injured, going to class, writing papers, etc., the stresses and the anxieties that these young ladies have to live under can cause tension. I’ve been so proud of the way they’ve stepped up to help each other work through those types of things. I think the biggest weakness for us this year, myself included, is once we get to those points where humanity rears its head, let’s not go there.”
 
Goals
Last season, the program won the PacWest Conference and advanced to the NCAA West Regional for the second straight season, but ultimately fell short against Sonoma State in the first round. This year, the team hopes to build on their success on and off the field, but also learn from their shortcomings in previous regionals to and make a deeper run in the NCAA tournament.
“I want the girls to do well in the classroom,” Hall explained. “I’m proud of them for that and the GPA they carry as a team. I’m even more proud of them for the way they carry themselves off the field as human beings. They want to live under that standard, that’s the way they want to be.
“We also want to get back into the national tournament,” Hall continued. “We’ve been disappointed in our getting there and then dropping too quickly. One of the great things for me is our captains this year have come up with a set of goals that the team did. Most of the goals they have are self-initiated, which I think is powerful.”
 
Conclusion
The Point Loma women’s soccer program has seen great success in past years both in the classroom and on the field. This season, the Sea Lions hope to build upon that success advance deeper into the NCAA Regional Tournament to further establish PLNU as one of the elite women’s soccer programs in the West. With such an experienced and talented group of returners and a well-rounded set of newcomers, 2016 is looking like a prime year to take that next step.