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LA JOLLA, Calif. - The All-CCAA women’s soccer teams and major award winners have been announced, a day in advance of the semifinal round of the 2019 CCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament in La Jolla.

Alexis Espitia is the CCAA Offensive Player of the Year after leading No. 10 Sonoma State to its first regular-season banner since 2015. Most significant among the junior forward’s team-leading eight goals was a 73rd-minute strike in the Seawolves’ 1-0 home decision over UC San Diego back on Oct. 25, a score that went a long way to ending the Tritons’ three-year reign atop the league table. With 19 total points, Espitia is SSU’s first women’s soccer student-athlete to earn a major conference award, since Carolyn Greco was the 2015 CCAA Defensive Player of the Year.

UC San Diego senior tri-captain Natalie Saddic was already the only multiple-time CCAA Defensive Player of the Year with a repeat selection last season for an award that began in 2008. The unanimous 2018 first-team All-American is now a three-time honoree, having once again anchored the defense of the 14th-ranked Tritons, who have posted 12 shutouts in their 16 matches. Saddic has added a team- and career-high eight goals offensively, four of them winners alongside one assist.

Redshirt senior Angelica Ramos, the 2017 CCAA Newcomer of the Year, is just the second CCAA Goalkeeper of the Year in her final college campaign as she shares the national lead in Division II with her 12 shutouts. Ramos has played every minute of the Tritons’ 16 matches, with her .367 goals-against average sixth in the country.

UC San Diego’s Mika Celeste is the CCAA Freshman of the Year. The product of Pasadena forced her way into the starting lineup after the first three matches, and wound up with six goals, all of them from distance, to go along with a pair of assists. Three strikes were of the game-winning variety, with two from direct free kicks.

Riley Spitzer, a junior midfielder out of Folsom Lake College, kept Cal State East Bay in the postseason hunt until the final day, contributing three goals and three assists. The last of those goals was East Bay’s opener in a crucial 3-2 overtime triumph at Chico State last Thursday to keep the Pioneers’ hopes alive. Spitzer thus makes program history as its first to garner a major CCAA individual recognition.

In his fourth season in charge at Cal Poly Pomona, Jay Mason has led a total turnaround, directing his side back to the CCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus, in third place. The Broncos went from a 5-9-4 (.389) overall mark and last-place CCAA finish (1-7-4) in 2018, to a 13-3-3 (.763) record overall, and 8-1-3 in league play. Ranked No. 22 nationally, they are through to the CCAA semifinals, and firmly in the mix for a first NCAA Championship berth since 2014. Mason is the Broncos’ first CCAA Coach of the Year in two decades, since Carlos Juarez all the way back in 1999.

Eight schools are represented on the All-CCAA first and second teams. Saddic, senior Sonoma State defender Riley West and junior Cal State LA midfielder Irma Pinzon are the only three repeat first-teamers, with Saddic and West indeed now back-to-back-to-back selections. Saddic was chosen to the second team in 2016.

Joining them on this year’s All-CCAA First Team, are redshirt senior UC San Diego center back Kelsey Kimball, Cal Poly Pomona standouts Ambria Pogue and Taylor Scott, and Stanislaus State veterans Sadie Ortiz and Ilena Rivera. Scott is the league’s leading goal-scorer with 12.

UC San Diego led all teams with four All-CCAA first-teamers. Sonoma State, Cal Poly Pomona and Stanislaus State all had two apiece, while Cal State LA picked up the 11th and final nod. All six individual awards, as well as the All-CCAA selections, were solely voted on by the CCAA’s 13 head coaches, and all 13 programs are represented at least once on the lists.