SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento State continues a run of three straight matches at home, hosting UC Santa Barbara on Thursday (Aug. 22) at 1 p.m. in its lone contest of the week. The match is the first of a doubleheader with the men's team that day as the men host Utah Valley in their regular season opener at 5 p.m.
THIS WEEK…
MATCH #3
WHAT: UC Santa Barbara (0-1, 0-0 Big West) at Sacramento State (1-1, 0-0 Big Sky)
WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024
TIME: 1 p.m.
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
GAME NOTES
Sacramento State | UC Santa Barbara
WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
• Every home match during the 2024 regular season will be streamed live on the ESPN+ subscription platform, with select road contests available on various streaming platforms.
• Links to watch and for live stats for all matches will be posted, as soon as they are available, on the women's soccer schedule page at HornetSports.com
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAINS!
• Seniors Abigail Lopez and Isabella Vinsonhaler, along with junior Madelyn Dougherty and sophomore Ellie Farber, have been selected as captains for the 2024 season
• This is the third straight season that Vinsonhaler has been named a team captain, while Lopez and Dougherty were captains in 2023
SCOUTING UC SANTA BARBARA
• The Gauchos enter the week with an 0-1 record after falling, 2-0, to Loyola Marymount in their season opener on Aug. 15
• The Gauchos were outshot, 14-10, by the Lions in their opener, including 5-1 in shots on goal
• Freshman Ava Dermott led the way with two of those 10 shot attempts
• Sophomore goalkeeper Maddie Buckley finished with a pair of saves in net against LMU
• Prior to the start of the year, UCSB posted a 2-0 exhibition win over Trinity Western -- which hails from Langley, B.C., and is a member of the Canada West Conference
SERIES NOTABLES
• UC Santa Barbara leads the all-time series with Sacramento State by a 7-2-2 count
• The Gauchos are unbeaten in their last five meetings (4-0-1) with the Hornets dating back to the 2014 campaign
• Thursday marks the first meeting between the two since the 2022 season when the schools battled to a 1-1 draw in Sacramento
• Sacramento State's last win in the series came at home in 2009 -- a 1-0 victory on Aug. 30
• The Hornets won the first-ever meeting between the two programs back in 1995 by a 2-1 score in Santa Barbara on Sept. 30
• UCSB leads the series in Sacramento by a 3-1-1 count, but the two teams have only played here twice in the last 10 seasons
• Seven of the 11 meetings have either ended in a draw or were decided by a single goal
• Only four of the 11 all-time meetings have ended in a shutout
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is 26-53-12 against Big West Conference schools since 1994
• The Hornets have faced 10 of the league's 11 current members, having met all but UC San Diego in that span
• Including this year's meeting, the 25 matches against UC Davis are the most for the Hornets against any Big West school
• Sacramento State's eight wins over Cal State Bakersfield are the most against any Big West opponent
• The Hornets were 1-3-1 against the Big West in 2023, posting a win over UC Riverside and a draw with the Roadrunners
• Sacramento State is just 1-5-4 in its last 10 against Big West opponents since 2022
• Last week's season opener against UC Davis was the first of five matches against Big West schools this season with contests against UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, CSUN, and Cal State Bakersfield remaining
LOOKING BACK
UC Davis 2, Sacramento State 0
• Senior Abigail Lopez finished with a pair of shot attempts and goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier finished with six stops at the other end, but the Hornets could not find the back of the net in a 2-0 defeat
• The host Aggies scored in the 41st and 64th minutes en route to the win
Sacramento State 3, Houston Christian 1
• The Hornets scored twice in the first half and added a third midway through the second en route to their first win over the year
• Sacramento State finished with a 20-15 shot advantage, including 9-2 in shots on goal
• Sophomore Ellie Farber scored in the 22nd minute, junior Madelyn Dougherty added another in the 35th, and sophomore Teysha-Ray Spinney Kuahuia capped it off in the 73rd
• Lopez added an assist on the Hornets' first goal of the day, while Farber completed a three-point outing with an assist on the second-half score
THRICE AS NICE
• Sacramento State's three goals against Houston Christian were a season high and most since the Hornets put up four goals in a 4-2 win over Eastern Washington in 2021
• Last Saturday also marked the first multi-goal game for Sacramento State since a 2-2 draw at Northern Colorado on Sept. 24 of last year
• It was also the most goals scored against a non-conference opponent since a 3-0 win over Nevada at home on Sept. 5, 2021
AWWW... SHOOT!
• Sacramento State's 20 shot attempts in the win over Houston Christian were the most in a match by a Big Sky Conference during opening weekend
• The 20 attempts were the most for the Hornets' offense since they finished with 21 against Eastern Washington in a 1-0 win on Oct. 6 of last season
• Despite surrendering 15 shots overall to the Huskies, Sacramento State's defense was stout enough to limit just two of those on frame -- the fewest by a Hornet opponent since holding Northern Colorado to only two on Sept. 24 of last season
• Senior Abigail Lopez ranks tied for third in the Big Sky with her six shot attempts following the first week of play, while sophomores Ellie Farber and Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia are tied for 10th with four apiece
FARBER MAKES HER POINT
• Sophomore Ellie Farber not only got the scoring started for the Hornets' in 2024 with her first-half goal, but jump-started a career day for the Redding, Calif., native
• Farber's first career goal was part of a career-best three-point day -- one of three Big Sky Conference players to net a goal and an assist in the same match during the season's opening weekend and one of four overall in the league with multiple points
• Her assist on teammate Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia's second-half goal was her third career helper and her first since she had two assists at Northern Colorado in September of last season
• Farber became the first Hornet with a three-point match since Ariana Nino had a goal and an assist at Idaho in the closing minutes of a 2-1 victory on Oct. 16, 2022
• The three points have her tied for third in the Big Sky entering this week's matches and tied for fourth with 1.50 points per match
DOUGHERTY CALLS "GAME"
• Junior Madelyn Dougherty notched the second goal of her Hornet career in the first half -- tallying what would become the game-winner in the team's 3-1 win
• Dougherty's only other goal -- a 19th minute score at Hawai'i Pacific on Aug. 26 of last year -- was also a game-winner, lifting Sacramento State to a 1-0 victory
NOSE FOR THE GOAL
• Senior Abigail Lopez enters her final collegiate campaign knocking on the door of a few all-time lists in Hornet women's soccer history
• The three-time All-Big Sky Conference honoree enters this week's match with 11 career goals and five assists for 27 points
• She needs two more goals this season to break into the career top 10 in that category, while nine more points gets Lopez onto that list
• Her 92 shots are also 20 back of 10th on the career chart
• After tying her personal single-season career high with four goals in 2023, Lopez has led the team in points twice in the last three seasons (10 in 2021 and eight in 2023)
POLL POSITION
• Mirroring its finish from the 2023 season, Sacramento State was picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky Conference standings in 2024 according to a vote of the league's head coaches released on Aug. 12
• The Hornets received 36 points overall in a tightly bunched middle of the pack, trailing Portland State by a point for fourth and leading Weber State by five points in sixth
• Reigning regular season champion Montana received five of the eight first-place votes and 56 points overall, followed by Northern Arizona (one first-place vote) with 51 points in second, and tournament champion and NCAA qualifier Idaho (two first-place votes) with 47 points in third
• Idaho State (23 points) in seventh, Eastern Washington (22 points) in eighth, and Northern Colorado (one first-place vote) with 21 points finished ninth
EXHIBITIONISTS
• Sacramento State opened the season with a pair of home exhibitions, falling to No. 22 Santa Clara on Aug. 7 before bouncing back to battle Fresno State to a draw
• Senior Cassandra Herrman netted a goal late in the match against the Bulldogs to give the Hornets an early lead, looping home a free kick from distance over the Fresno State keeper
• Senior Abigail Lopez accounted for seven shots in the two contests, including a team-high four against the Bulldogs
• Sophomore goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier finished with 13 saves in the two matches -- eight of those in the battle with the ranked Broncos
ALLOW ME TO REINTRODUCE MYSELF
• Fans of the Hornets will recognize most of the 2024 roster as Sacramento State returns 17 players, 10 starters, and six redshirts off of last season's squad
• Also among the 30-woman roster for this season are seven new faces, made up of three transfers and four true freshmen
• Overall, the Hornets lost only one starter (Sammy Wong) and four letter winners off of last season's roster
STATE OF THE HORNETS
• When Sacramento State takes the field in 2024, those in the green and gold will represent five different states and the nation of Wales
• Of those 31 student-athletes, 19 of those hail from California, eight from Hawai'i (Ali Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia, Shaunee Egloria, Jaety Mandaquit, Candace Ching, Dalen Lau, Madelyn Dougherty, and Payton Inabata), with one each from Colorado (Ella Wilcox), Idaho (Isabella Vinsonhaler), Washington (Sierra Sonko), and the nation of South Wales (Zara Mujica)
• Sonko is the first Hornet from the "Evergreen State" since Caitlin Prothe wrapped up her stellar career in 2018
• Wilcox is the first Colorado native since Courtney Gorham finished her four years in 2005
OHANA MEANS FAMILY
• The eight Hawai'ians on this year's roster are two more than the Hornets had on their 2023 roster and are one shy of the number of "Aloha State" natives that University of Hawai'i has on its roster for 2024
A WALE(S) OF A NEWCOMER
• When she makes her first appearance between the pipes for the Hornets, goalkeeper Zara Mujica is the first player to suit up for the Hornets to hail from outside the United States since another keeper, Tiffany Genovese (Surrey, British Columbia), appeared in 11 matches as a freshman on the 2000 squad
• According to available records, those are the only two international players that Sacramento State has rostered in the history of the program
HALL OF FAMER
• Sacramento State Head Coach Randy Dedini added to his list of career accomplishments this past summer when he was inducted into the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Hall of Fame as part of the club's third class in July
• Dedini was a member of the inaugural Riverhounds team in 1999, playing five years in Pittsburgh
• He still holds club records for wins (57), shutouts (29), and matches played (125) while also holding the single-season mark with 136 saves in 1999, helping the club to its first playoff berth and victory that year
• He is also a member of Sonoma State's Hall of Fame, inducted in 2008 following an All-American playing career for the Seawolves
