Pusch Ridge beat Empire 3-0 in the 3A Play-In Tournament Thursday night at home to advance to the state tournament bracket for the third season in a row. The first round of the 3A state tournament is slated for Wednesday, Feb. 8. with the higher eight seeds hosting, which means the Lions will be on the road when the bracket is released.

Empire (7-5 in ranking matches) qualified for postseason play for the first time since 2009, and for the second time in school history, where the Ravens lost to Yuma Catholic 3-2 in the first round of the old 1A/2A/3A playoff configuration. Empire opened for students in 2005.

Pusch Ridge (8-4) outshot Empire 15-4 in the match and the team scored on a scramble off of a corner kick with Julia Anderson placing the ball Macy Blackwell in the 9th minute. Lili Vekony crossed the ball to Olivia Maxfield in the 14th minute for a 2-0 lead and Angelee Crooks collected a rebound and she hit net in the 77th minute for the 3-0 win.