Sabino and Tucson played to a 1-1 draw Monday night in a rare nonconference match with one day left in the 3A Conference regular season. Sabino started the night ranked No. 3 in the 3A Conference with a perfect 9-0 record, including 5-0 in the 3A South Region, and Tucson came in ranked No. 16 in the 6A Conference with a 6-4 record in power-ranking matches.

The Sabercats qualified for the state playoffs last Thursday after clinching the South Region title under the rules for the 3A level. The team is also ranked high enough to avoid the play-in tournament slated for Thursday night. The top eight teams in the 3A Conference advance directly to the state tournament starting on Wednesday, Feb. 9 and those eight teams will be joined by the eight winners of the play-in tournament, comprised of teams ranked No. 9-24.

The are no automatic berths based on region standings in the 6A level so the postseason will be a straight draw of the top 24 teams with the top eight avoiding the play-in phase set for Feb. 9. The first round of the 6A state tournament is a few days later on Feb. 12.

Sabino started the match with Tucson on a fast pace with 8 of their 12 shots on goal recorded in the first 15 minutes but the teams played even from there until the Badgers took off in the beginning of the second half with 6 of their 9 shots coming quickly. It looked like the teams would play to a 0-0 tie but Kristal Navarro scored from 20 yards out to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead in the 70th minute.

Down 1-0, Ella Sabel connected on a direct kick from 15 yards out for the 1-1 tie and both teams came up scoreless in overtime. Sabino (9-0-1) will host Empire (4-6) Tuesday night and Tucson (6-4-1) is set to host Maricopa (6-3-1) Friday night.

Ella Sabel tied things up in the 77th minute. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)