CALDWELL — Birthday girl Kelly Hardegree-Ullman gave her teammates the gift on Saturday.

The Coyote goalkeeper's diving save early against Oregon Tech ignited the No. 22-ranked College of Idaho to a 4-0 rout in the opening round of the Cascade Conference tournament at Simplot Stadium.

"It definitely was a game-changer, it definitely pumped us up," said Hardegree-Ullman, who finished with four saves. "When those kind of things happen, a big play is made, I think it just helped tremendously to pump our team up and step it up and not let them get any more shots off."

Hardegree-Ullman's big play came in the 15th minute when the Owls' Katie O'Brien one-timed a centering pass towards the goal. The Yote keeper dove to punch the ball just wide.

"The save was huge," C of I coach Niki Taylor said. "And it wasn't that we were playing poorly, the ball was going back and forth and they got a look and Kelly made a huge save.

"That's what you need your goalkeeper to do, you expect them to save the balls they're suppose to save then come up with one or two big one's. She did it and it kept the score tied and we were able to take the lead shortly after that."

The C of I struck about three minutes after as Colleen Smith headed in the game-winner off a Lauren Winterholler corner kick 18:06 into the action.

Just 1:22 later, Justine Hawkins set up Jessica Ayala for a blast and a 2-0 Yote lead.

The Yotes (14-2) put the game away just 3:52 into the second half when Erika Mouritsen outmuscled Owls defender Sharon Hernandez for a ball in the Oregon Tech goal-box, booting it home inside the right post.

"We've actually had some slower second halves where other teams have kinda made a run at us, so over the past few weeks we've talked about how we have to make sure we come out in the second just as excited and just as ready to go and focused as we do at the beginning of the game," Taylor said.

Mouritsen capped the win with a goal in the 63rd minute off a Taylor Culver assist.

The win sends the Yotes into the conference title game against No. 7 Concordia, tentatively scheduled for noon next Saturday at Simplot Stadium.

"We're extremely excited for the title match," Hardegree-Ullman said. "Our goal this season was to make it to the championship game, so we've already hit that goal. It doesn't matter who we play, we want to step out, do our best and hopefully come out with a W."