SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State men's soccer program kicks-off its 34th Division I campaign with a pair of matches this week, opening the 2025 season at No. 13 Stanford on Thursday (Aug. 21) at 3 p.m., before hosting Utah Tech in a Sunday (Aug. 24) matinee at 1 p.m.
THIS WEEK…
MATCH #1
WHAT: Sacramento State (6-10-2, 3-6 Big Sky in 2024) at No. 13 Stanford (9-5-6, 3-2-3 ACC in 2024)
WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025
WHERE: Stanford, Calif.
TIME: 3 PM
STADIUM: Cagan Stadium
WATCH: ACC Network Extra
LIVE STATS: GoStanford.com
MATCH #2
WHAT: Utah Tech (4-10-4, 3-4-2 WAC in 2024) at Sacramento State
WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 1 PM
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
WEEKLY NOTES: Sacramento State | Stanford | Utah Tech | Big West Conference
THE HORNETS, QUICKLY
• Sacramento State is coming off a 2024 season that saw the Hornets finish 6-10-2 overall and 3-6 in the Big West Conference
• Fifteen letter winners and six starters return for the green and gold in 2025, while the roster features 12 total newcomers — six of transfers
• The Hornets return their top five scorers from a season ago led by All-Big West forward junior Donovan Sessoms, who ended the 2024 campaign with 10 goals and 20 points on 48 shots
• Big West All-Freshman Team selection Sean Battistessa brings back his five goals and an assist from his stellar collegiate debut
• In all, seven of the 10 players who found the back of the net for Sacramento State a season ago return, while junior Zac Giles brings back his team-high five assists
• There will be a new face in net for the Hornets with the departure of starter Mac Learned, as Lucas Bost is joined by transfers Andres Rosales (Cal Poly) and Brian Tufino (Taft College)
• Bost appeared in three matches in relief in 2024 (91 minutes), posting six saves without allowing a goal and adding an assist on the game-tying score in a 1-1 draw at Portland
SESSOMS EARNS PRESEASON HONORS
• Junior forward Donovan Sessoms was one of 11 student-athletes named to the preseason All-Big West Conference squad on Aug. 14
• Sessoms, an All-Big West first-team selection as a sophomore in 2024, became the seventh Hornet to earn preseason all-conference honors and the first since Austin Wehner made the team in 2023
• He joins a group that also includes former standouts Cesar Castillo (2012), Isaac Ikyurav (2013), Brad Bumgarner (2016), Paul Goyer (2017), and Oscar Govea (2021)
IRON SHARPENS IRON
• Sacramento State's 2025 schedule features three NCAA Tournament qualifiers from a season ago and six schools that finished inside the final top 100 in the end-of-season RPI rankings
• Stanford (third round), along with Big West Conference rivals UC Santa Barbara (second round) and UC Davis (first round) make up the NCAA Tournament trio
• The Cardinal leads the group among the top 100 in the RPI, finishing 2024 at No. 12
• They are followed by the Gauchos (No. 28), the Aggies (No. 54), San Francisco (No. 70), UC Irvine (No. 72), and Cal State Fullerton (No. 90) • Six more were among the top 150 in Cal State Bakersfield (No. 102), Cal Poly (No. 107), Utah Valley (No. 111), Pacific (No. 130), UC Riverside (No. 145), and San Jose State (No. 149)
• For comparison, Sacramento State ended the year ranked No. 139 in the final RPI rankings
SCOUTING STANFORD
• The Cardinal enter this year's campaign after finishing 9-5-6 overall and 3-2-3 in the ACC in 2024, earning the No. 16 national seed in last year's NCAA Tournament and reaching the third round before falling to Ohio State on penalties
• Stanford finished the 2024 season ranked No. 13 in the nation
• Two of the team's top three scorers return for the Cardinal, led by senior midfielder Zach Bohane, who finished with five goals and three assist for a team-high 13 points
• Senior forward Shane de Flores finished tied for second on the team with four goals and three assists for 11 points
• Junior Rowan Schnebly is the incumbent in net after posting a 0.98 goals against average in 20 starts in 2024, making 36 saves and finishing with seven shutouts
• Stanford is coming off a preseason that saw it post exhibition wins over San Francisco (2-0), Cal State Bakersfield (2-1), and Cal Poly (1-0) at home heading into this week's regular season opener
SERIES NOTABLES
• Stanford leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 8-5-1
• Thursday's match will be the first official match between the two programs since the 2010 season when the Hornets posted a 1-0 road win
• Prior to that, the Cardinal had been unbeaten in the previous six (5-0-1) meetings
• This will be the ninth all-time meeting between the two programs at Stanford, with each team posting four wins
• The two teams haven't met in Sacramento since 1998, with the Cardinal holding a 3-1-1 advantage in matches played on the Hornets' home field
• Each of the last six meetings have ended in a shutout
• Four of Sacramento State's five wins in the series have come via the shutout
• The two programs previously were rivals in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation from 1992-99, with Stanford holding a 4-3-1 advantage in those matches
SCOUTING UTAH TECH
• The Trailblazers enter the 2025 season after finishing 4-10-4 overall and 3-4-2 in the WAC a year ago
• Utah Tech qualified for the WAC Tournament, but fell, 1-0, to No. 3 California Baptist in the opening round
• The Trailblazers opened with a 2-0-1 mark in three exhibitions, drawing against the College of Idaho (0-0) while defeating Snow College (4-0) and Colorado Mesa (2-0)
• Utah Tech officially opens the year on Thursday against Gonzaga at home before traveling to Sacramento State
• Junior forward Samir Cuevas returns to lead the offense after pacing the team with four goals and eight points in 11 matches a season ago
• Senior goalkeeper Stockton Short started all 18 matches in between the pipes, posting a 1.61 goals against average and 105 saves (.784 save percentage) in 1,620 minutes, ending the year with a pair of shutouts
SERIES NOTABLES
• Sunday's match marks the third all-time meeting between the two programs with Sacramento State holding a 2-0 lead in the series
• The Hornets won the inaugural meeting with the Trailblazers, 1-0, in St. George in 2022, and followed that up with a 1-0 win at home in 2023
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is 62-60-14 against the current Western Athletic Conference alignment, having faced all eight of the league's programs
• Following the match against Utah Tech, the Hornets will play three of their next four matches against WAC opponents in Grand Canyon (Aug. 28), Utah Valley (Sept. 4), and San Jose State (Sept. 7)
• Sacramento State is 8-25-3 against the current ACC alignment, with all but two of those results coming against three of the league's newest members in California (3-14-2), Stanford (5-8-1), and SMU (0-1)
• The Hornets are also 0-1 against ACC bluebloods Duke and NC State -- having faced both in a tournament hosted by the Blue Devils in Durham, N.C., in 2010
FOR OPENERS
• Sacramento State is a combined 8-25-3 in regular season openers according to available records dating back to the 1986 season
• The Hornets have lost their last four openers -- two of the last three coming against nationally ranked squads in No. 3 Washington (2022) and No. 13 Portland (2023)
• Sacramento State last opened a season with a victory back in 2019, posting a 2-0 win at San Jose State
• Thursday's match against Stanford marks the sixth time in the last seven seasons that Sacramento State will open on the road
• Going back even further 14 of the team's last 16 season openers have been on the road, while 23 of the program's 36 openers since 1986 have been played away from home
• Sacramento State is 19-14-4 in home openers, splitting its last four such contests with wins over San Jose State (2022) and Utah Tech (2023)
THAT'S RANK
• Since 1996, Sacramento State is 8-50-5 against opponents ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, having lost its last four such contests
• The Hornets' last win over a top 25 opponent came on Sept. 6, 2019, when they shutout then-No. 25 Air Force, 2-0, at home
• That preceeded a 2-1 road win over a receiving votes San Diego squad nine days later and were among a group of six opponents either ranked or receiving votes that year
• The last road win against a ranked squad was on Aug. 27, 2011, shutting out Loyola Marymount, 1-0, in overtime
• Last season, the Hornets posted a 3-1 win over a receiving votes UC Santa Barbara squad at home on Oct. 19
AGAINST THE "POWER FOUR"
• When the Hornets take the field against Stanford on Thursday, it will mark the third time in the last four seasons that Sacramento State will face an opponent from a "Power Four" Conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC)
• The Cardinal are the fourth "Power Four" opponent for Sacramento State in the last six seasons: No. 5 Indiana (2019), No. 3 Washington (2022), California (2024), and No. 13 Stanford (2025)
• Sacramento State has lost its last nine meetings with "Power Four" schools dating back to a 1-0 win at Stanford on Sept. 12, 2010
• In all, Sacramento State has faced nine "Power Four" opponents: Washington, Indiana, California, UCLA, Stanford, Duke, NC State, Michigan State, and Illinois
SESSOMS BRINGING IT BACK
• Fresh off a 10-goal, 20-point season as a sophomore, Sessoms is among the league's top returning scorers for 2025
• His 10 goals are tied for the third-most among active players in the league, while his 20 points are tied for fifth
• Last season, Sessoms was third in the Big West with 48 shots and led the league with 2.67 shots per match, while standing fifth in the league in points, fourth in points per game (1.11), fourth in goals, and third in goals per game (0.56)
DEAN OF COACHES
• Head Coach Michael Linenberger enters his 36th season at the helm of the Hornets' program in 2025, a position he has held since 1989
• Linenberger is the longest tenured head coach in the Big West in both overall years as a head coach and years at his current school, edging out UC Davis' Dwayne Shaffer (34 years overall and 29th with the Aggies) and UC Santa Barbara's Tim Vom Steeg (34 years overall and 27th with the Gauchos)
• Linenberger's 232 wins with the Hornets make him one of four Big West coaches to win at least 200 career matches at their current school entering the 2025 campaign, ranking third on that list behind only Vom Steeg (318) and Shaffer (258)
FORMER HORNET JOINS THE BENCH
• Former Sacramento State goalkeeper Hector "Keko" Grajeda has returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach for 2025
• The Stockton native was a member of the Hornets' roster in 2019 and 2020 following two seasons at Cosumnes River College where he was the Big 8 Conference Goalkeeper of the Year and a first-team all-league selection
• Grajeda graduated from Sacramento State as a member of the Dean's List with his degree in sociology
HORNETS AND THE PROS
• Junior forward Donovan Sessoms was selected with the first pick of the third round in last winter's MLS SuperDraft by the expansion side San Diego FC
• He was the first Hornet to be taken in the draft since Chimdum Mez in the fourth round in 2015 by San Jose and the fifth to be drafted in school history along with Brandon Cavitt (1996 College Draft, Dallas Burn), Ernesto Carranza (2011 Supplemental Draft, Chivas USA), and Fernando Cabadas (2011 Supplemental Draft, New England Revolution)
• Meanwhile, Mac Learned signed with NYCFC II in MLS NEXT Pro following his standout senior campaign, having started nine matches and making 38 saves to go along with a 2.00 goals against average and a shutout in 810 minutes
WE BAND OF BROTHERS
• For the third consecutive season, the Hornets will feature a set of brothers on the roster as sophomore Sean Battistessa will be joined by his younger brother, Evan
• The duo is believed to be the fourth set of brothers to play soccer at Sacramento State in the same season, joining Blake and Brady Nunes (2007-08), Ivan and Omar Oseguera (2017-18), and Jhared and Robert Willcot (2023-24)
• They join other brother tandems who have both played for the Hornets at some point in their careers: Mark and Kevin Baena, Mike and Tim Gaither, and Oscar and Danny Goeva.
