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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – No. 23 UC Santa Barbara punched its ticket to the Big West Championship with a tight 1-0 win over UC Davis on Wednesday night at Harder Stadium, with sophomore forward Ahinga Selemani's 79th minute marker holding up as the only score in a defensively compact game. 

UCSB is now set to host Cal State Fullerton for the conference championship at Harder Stadium at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Tickets are already on sale and can be purchased by clicking here or calling 805-893-UCSB.

The Gauchos, sitting at 13-5-2 after Wednesday's victory, will be seeking their second-ever Big West Tournament championship. UC Davis, the No. 3 seed in the North Division, sees its season end with an 8-10-3 overall record.

"Anytime you play Davis, you're not going to be comfortable until you put two or three goals away," said UCSB head coach Tim Vom Steeg. "I thought we had a good number of looks, and the biggest difference tonight was that for the first time since I can remember, I had a full complement of players going into the tournament."

That depth paid off for Vom Steeg late in the second half, as one of his bench players sparked an offensive opportunity and then finished it off with a left-footed, 25-yard laser past a pair of Aggie defenders and keeper Kris Schultz.

Selemani started the play with a run up the right side of the midfield, before finding midfielder Kevin Feucht for a one-two. Off the give and go, Selemani turned a seemingly innocuous chance into a play-of-the-year candidate with his perfectly placed strike into the corner.

Having battled a knee injury down the stretch, the goal was a welcome relief for Selemani.

"Coming into the game, my goal was just to create as many chances as possible," said Selemani. "It made me really happy to get that goal so late in the game, but right away we knew we needed to get back into defensive mode to prevent a late goal from happening."

UCSB was successful in preventing the Aggies from finding an equalizer, recording the team's second shutout against the Aggies and the sixth overall for the season.

Having recorded just one shot so far in the second half, UC Davis was only able to get off a pair of last-ditch efforts in the final 15 seconds, neither of which came remotely close to being a threat.

It was a strong effort overall for the defensive corps, led by center back pairing Brandon Brockway and Fuad Adeniyi. Goalkeeper Justin Vom Steeg made just a pair of saves but was big when it counted, making a big stop on a close-range header in the 54th minute and an aggressive cancelling-out of a dangerous UC Davis cross in the 57th.

Adam Carn-Saferstein, a senior, made his first start of the season at outside back and put in a reliable performance down the right flank.

The strong play of Carn-Saferstein set off a chain reaction for the Gauchos, as normal right back Duncan Backus was able to move into a holding midfield position, pushing Feucht into a more advanced role. Receiving an assist on the Selemani marker, Feucht also had UCSB's best look of the first half, but a huge save from Schultz denied the German international's point-blank shot in the 24th minute.

The Aggies were led Schultz, who made three key saves on the night to keep his team in the game. With two, center back Lucas Mogageg was the sole UC Davis player to record multiple shots.

Cal State Fullerton advanced to the Big West final via a 3-1 win at home over Cal Poly on Wednedsay night. After the Mustangs opened the game's scoring, Julian Okai equalized for the Titans before a second half brace from Diego Sanchez sealed the result.