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CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team claimed the 2012 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship Sunday in convincing fashion, defeating No. 16 California University (Pa.) 3-0 at the Philipsburg Soccer Complex.

With the championship, Slippery Rock also earns the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, which will begin next weekend. The Rock will find out its seed and first round matchup when the NCAA selection committee announces the national field Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in a live webcast at www.ncaa.com.

The title is the third in the history of the program and the first since 2005 for Slippery Rock, which now owns a 3-1 record in conference title games.

Lucy Hannon was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after scoring two goals and assisting the game-winner in the final and assisting two goals in the semifinal.

With the win, Slippery Rock improves to 13-5-2 overall. California, which had never lost on its new field at the Philipsburg Complex entering the final, drops to 16-4-1. The Vulcans were a perfect 13-0 last fall in their first year playing at the facility and were 11-0 this season before Sunday.

Shelby Ward, who was outstanding in all three games of the tournament, was credited with the game-winning goal for Slippery Rock. Hannon added two late insurance tallies and Cailin Conner and Allison Harbart each picked up assists in the title game.

Dana O'Neill earned the shutout, her ninth of the season, after making five saves. Lauren Impey also recorded a team save in the first half to keep the game scoreless at the time.

California's Ashley Magruda took the loss after allowing three goals and recording three saves.

Slippery Rock finished the game with advantages of 18-15 in total shots and 6-3 in corner kicks. Both teams were credited with six shots on goal.

Neither team could generate much momentum in a back and forth opening half that saw chances for each side. The teams took a scoreless tie to the intermission with Slippery Rock posting a 6-5 edge in total shots.

Slippery Rock  broke the tie in the 63rd minute after Hannon played a long through ball over the defense to Harbart near the end line, who found Ward all alone in front of the net for the score.

The Rock made it 2-0 in the 69th minute after Conner stole the ball in the offensive zone and sent it forward to Hannon, who buried a shot into the upper right corner.

Hannon added an insurance tally in the 82nd minute with a breakaway goal, scoring into the lower left corner of the net.

California could not gather any momentum down the stretch as The Rock defense held on for the shutout.

Saturday's win will likely have an impact on the seedings for the NCAA Tournament that will be announced tomorrow night. Entering the week, Slippery Rock was the No. 7 seed in the region with only the top six teams earning a berth.

Since those rankings were released, The Rock has gone on the road to the No. 1 team (West Chester) and the No. 2 team (California) and earned wins. SRU also recorded a dominant win over the No. 6 seed (East Stroudsburg). All of those wins came in a four day stretch.

The top two seeds in the region will host regional tournaments and earn first round byes in the NCAA playoffs. The No. 3 and No. 6 seeds will travel to the No. 2 seed, while the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds will travel to the No. 1 seed.