SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State women's soccer finally gets a chance to play in front of the hometown faithful this week, hosting a pair of opponents after opening the year with three straight road contests. The Hornets open against UC Irvine on Thursday (Aug. 28) at 3 p.m., before welcoming Fresno State on Sunday (Aug. 31) at 11 a.m. in the first match of a doubleheader with the men's team.
THIS WEEK...
MATCH #4
WHAT: UC Irvine (1-1-2 overall) at Sacramento State (2-1 overall)
WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 3 PM PT
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
MATCH #5
WHAT: Fresno State (0-0-2 overall) at Sacramento State (2-1 overall)
WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 11 AM PT
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
WEEKLY NOTES: Sacramento State | UC Irvine | Fresno State | Big Sky Conference
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAINS!
• Senior Isabella Vinsonhaler and junior Ellie Farber have been named captains for 2025
• This year marks the fourth time that Vinsonhaler has been named a team captain, while Farber was named a team captain for the first time in her Hornet career as a sophomore in 2024
SCOUTING UC IRVINE
• The Anteaters enter the week with a 1-1-2 overall record after locking up a pair of draws at San Diego (0-0) and at home against Washington (1-1)
• Thursday marks the fourth road match for UC Irvine, part of a run that sees the Anteaters play five of their first six away from home
• Defense has been the name of the game for the Anteaters, who have surrendered only three goals
• Meanwhile, four of the team's five goals in 2025 came in a 4-1 win at Grand Canyon in the season opener back on Aug. 14
• Senior midfielder Mia Colombini leads the way with a pair of goals and an assist for five points, while three other players have also scored
• Junior goalkeeper Laurynn Ziller has played all but 75 seconds in net, posting a 0.75 goals against average and 11 saves (.786 save percentage)
SERIES NOTABLES
• Sacramento State and UC Irvine have only met twice in the history of the two programs, the last ending in a 2-0 victory for the Anteaters in 2023
• Prior to that, the two schools hadn't met since the Hornets' inaugural women's soccer season in 1994, which was won by UCI, 6-0
• Thursday's match will be the first-ever played in Sacramento between the two programs
SCOUTING FRESNO STATE
• The Bulldogs enter the week with an 0-0-2 overall record following draws against a pair of Big West Conference schools in UC Davis (1-1) and Cal Poly (0-0)
• Fresno State hosts another Big West rival in UC Santa Barbara on Thursday (Aug. 28) before making the trip to Sacramento three days later
• Senior midfielder/forward Alexis Campbell has the lone goal for the Bulldogs, while classmate Ciara Wilson posted the assist on the score against UC Davis
• Senior goalkeeper Shivani Battaglia has played every minute in net, posting a 0.50 goals against and 11 saves (.917 save percentage) in her two starts
SERIES NOTABLES
• Fresno State leads the all-time series with Sacramento State by an 11-7-3 count
• The Hornets are unbeaten in the last three meetings (1-0-2) with the Bulldogs -- all ending in overtime
• Sunday marks the first "official" meeting between the two programs since the 2021 season (a 1-1 double-overtime draw on Sept. 19, 2021) after the two met in a preseason exhibition in 2024
• Sacramento State leads the all-time series in matches played on its home field by a 5-3-1 count, going unbeaten in five of the last six
• The two programs haven't played in Sacramento, however, since the 2017 campaign, ending in a 2-1 overtime win for the Hornets
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is a combined 27-53-15 against the current women's soccer alignment in the Big West
• The Hornets are unbeaten in their last four against the Big West (1-0-3) after defeating CSUN (1-0) and posting draws against UC Santa Barbara (1-1), Cal Poly (0-0), and Cal State Bakersfield (1-1), last year
• Beginning Thursday, five of Sacramento State's remaining seven non-conference matches will be against Big West opponents: Hawaii (Sept. 4), CSUN (Sept. 11), UC Santa Barbara (Sept. 14), and UC Davis (Sept. 18)
• The Hornets have faced all but one of the Big West schools, having played everyone except UC San Diego which joined the league in 2020
• Sacramento State is a combined 31-40-10 against the current Mountain West lineup
• Sunday marks the first Mountain West opponent for the Hornets since a loss at Nevada on Sept. 4, 2022
• Sacramento State is 4-2-2 in its last eight against the league since 2018
PALMATIER EARNS BIG SKY HONORS
• Junior goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier was named the Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Aug. 26 following her shutout of Oregon
• It is the fourth career weekly defensive honor from the league office for Palmatier, who earned her first award in 2023 and added two more in 2024
• The four career defensive awards for the Folsom, Calif., native are third on the program's all-time list, just one back of Savannah Abercrombie (2008-11) and two behind Aaliyah Fesili's (2017, 2019-20) record of six
WE'LL HAVE A HOUSE PARTY
• When the Hornets take the field at home against UC Irvine on Thursday, they will put an eight-match (4-0-4) unbeaten home streak on the line
• Sacramento State hasn't lost at home since a 1-0 defeat against Idaho on Oct. 8, 2023
• The four wins at Hornet Soccer Field in 2024 were the most since the 2019 squad finished unbeaten with a 7-0-2 mark on their home turf
• The eight-match home unbeaten streak is the third-longest in school history, trailing only the 17-match (14-0-3) run from Oct. 1, 2006 to Aug. 29, 2008, and a 13-match (8-0-5) run from Aug. 25, 2019 to March 21, 2021
• Sacramento State is 6-2-6 in its last 14 matches on its home turf dating back to 2023
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME
• Sophomore Jaety Mandaquit made her return to Hawaii even more special in the Hornets' win over Oregon, scoring the first goal of her career off assists from Tierra Pickell and Lexi Schroeder to lift Sacramento State to the 1-0 win
• Mandaquit, who hails from Hilo, Hawaii, became already the fourth different Hornet to find the back of the net this year (the team had eight goal scorers in all of 2024)
STARTING FAST
• The win over the Ducks improved Sacramento State to 2-0 on the year at the time -- the team's first 2-0 start since the 2007 squad opened with three straight wins and a draw.
QUITE A RUN
• Last Sunday's loss to Central Arkansas was the Hornets' first in the regular season since they fall at Eastern Washington on Sept. 29 of last season, ending an unbeaten run of eight straight matches (5-0-3) outside of the postseason
• Prior to the loss, Sacramento State had been unbeaten in 11 of its last 12 overall, with the only loss coming to top-seeded and No. 4 ranked USC in last year's NCAA Tournament
IZZY DOES IT
• Palmatier continued her stingy start to 2025, making eight saves in the shutout of Oregon -- five of those coming in the final 27 minutes (facing 10 shots) of the Hornets' 1-0 victory
• The shutout was the 13th of her career, moving her into a tie with Stacy Hines (1994-97) and Kimberly Mata (2010, 2012-14) for third on the all-time list
• Palmatier's eight stops give her 192 for her career, putting her just four shy of Mata for fifth
• In the season opener on Aug. 14, Palmatier made four saves and finished off a 3-0 shutout of Pacific, earning her a spot on the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week honorable mention list
• Palmatier finished with seven clean sheets last season -- which ranked tied for fifth on the school's single-season list -- including a pair of scoreless draws over top-seeded Montana and second-seeded Idaho en route to the Big Sky Tournament title
• Among returning Big Sky keepers entering 2025, Palmatier leads the league in shutouts, is third in saves, and is second in saves per game, save percentage, and goals against average
MY HERO, ZERO
• With her shutout of Oregon, Palmatier extended her personal shutout streak to 356:06 dating back to a goal in the fourth minute by Northern Arizona on Oct. 20, 2024
GIVE US A SHOT
• Sacramento State dominated the stat sheet in the 1-0 loss against Central Arkansas to close out the trip to Hawaii, finishing with a 20-6 shot advantage, an 8-3 lead in shots on goal, and a 57-43 lead in possession
• The 20 shot attempts were a season high and the most since the Hornets finished with the same number in a win over Houston Christian on Aug. 17 of last season
• Of Sacramento State's eight shots on goal, half came via senior defender Sydney Sharts, who put all four of her attempts on frame for the match
POLL POSITION
• Sacramento State was picked to finish in a tie for fourth in the regular Big Sky standings according to a preseason vote of the league's head coaches released on Monday (Aug. 11)
• The Hornets received 39 points total and one first-place vote to match Northern Arizona, which also picked up 39 points
• Reigning regular season champion Montana was picked to repeat, receiving six first-place votes and 60 points, followed by Eastern Washington (52, 2 first-place votes), and Idaho (49) in the top three
PRESEASON LAURELS FOR SHARTS, FARBER
• Senior defender Sydney Sharts and junior midfielder Ellie Farber were both selected to the 12-member preseason All-Big Sky team
• The duo becomes the first two Hornets to earn preseason all-conference laurels in the first year that the league has released a preseason honor roll
TRADING THE SKY FOR THE WEST
• The 2025 season will be the Hornets' final season in the Big Sky as all of Sacramento State's athletic teams outside of football will transition to the Big West Conference beginning in 2026-27
• The Hornets will be leaving the only conference that they have ever known, as they have competed as a Big Sky member since the 1996 campaign -- just two years after Sacramento State began sponsoring the sport in 1994
• Three of the Hornets' future Big West rivals are on the schedule for the 2025 campaign in UC Irvine (Aug. 28), CSUN (Sept. 11), and UC Santa Barbara (Sept. 14)
HORNETS AT A GLANCE
• Sacramento State is coming off a storybook 2024 campaign that saw the Hornets finish 5-7-9 overall and 3-2-3 in the Big Sky Conference, eventually becoming the first school in league history to win the conference tournament all via penalty kick results
• The Hornets won the title, and ensuing NCAA Tournament berth, for the third time in school history and the first since 2010, falling to top-seeded USC, 5-0, in the first round
• Sacramento State returns 15 letter winners and eight starters off of last season squad, welcoming 11 newcomers -- five of those transfers -- and a pair of returning redshirts to the fold for 2025
• Six of the eight players who found the back of the net for the Hornets last season return for this season led by junior midfielder Ellie Farber, who finished with three goals and three assists in 2024
• Candace Ching, Ariana Scholten, Sydney Sharts, and Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia all finished with a pair of goals, while Lexi Schroeder netted her first career strike in the Big Sky Tournament
• In net, junior goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier returns after starting all 21 matches and playing in all but five minutes of last season's campaign, posting a 1.30 goals against average and 107 saves to go with five shutouts
• Sophomore keeper Sierra Sonko also returns after picking up Big Sky Tournament MVP honors thanks to her performances in penalties when she saved 6-of-18 attempts
NEW FACE ON THE BENCH
• Janae Braun joins the Hornets' sideline as a volunteer assistant coach in 2025
• Braun was an assistant at Causeway rival UC Davis for the last two seasons (2023-24)
• Was a two-year letter winner for the Aggies in 2018-19 after spending her first two collegiate seasons at Santa Clara in 2015-16
• Also brings an extensive international and professional playing resume, competing with the Mexican U17 National Team while also playing with Club America, Mazatlan FC, and the WPSL's California Storm, while also becoming a member of the inaugural USA Futsal National Team
TIE ME A RIVER
• With nine draws in 2024, Sacramento State set a new single-season school record for ties, surpassing the previous mark of six set in 2019
• The nine draws were also tied for the most in the nation, joining Wyoming (4-6-9), UC Santa Barbara (8-6-9), and Towson (6-4-9)
• Last year's total fell just one shy of the NCAA single-season mark of 10 shared by Canisius (5-5-10), Pacific (7-3-10), and Indiana State (2-6-10) -- all coming in 2022 when the NCAA first eliminated overtime for regular season matches
• Sacramento State's scoreless draw against Idaho in last season's Big Sky Championship match was the team's fourth of the year, standing just two shy of the NCAA record of six set by Indiana in 2022
STATE OF THE HORNETS
• When Sacramento State takes the field in 2025, those in the green and gold will represent six different states
• Of the 28 student-athletes on this year's roster, 17 of those hail from California, five from the state of Hawaii (Dalen Lau, Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia, Jaety Mandaquit, Candace Ching, and Payton Inabata), two from the state of Colorado (Elyse McGinnis and Ella Wilcox), two from the state of Washington (Sierra Sonko and Shawna Larson), one from the state of Illinois (Cynthia Waller), and one from Idaho (Isabella Vinsonhaler)
• Sonko and Larson are the first Hornets from the "Evergreen State" since Caitlin Prothe in 2018
• Wilcox and McGinnis are the first Colorado natives since Courtney Gorham finished in 2005
• Waller is the first-ever Hornet to hail from the state of Illinois
