SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State men's soccer team looks to turn its fortunes around with a pair of matches at home this week -- only the third time this year that the Hornets will play back-to-back home contests.

Pac-12 opponent UC San Diego comes to town for a Wednesday (Oct. 14) kick off, before Big West rival UC Irvine makes the trek on Saturday (Oct. 17). Both matches will kick-off at 4 p.m. and will be streamed live on the ESPN+ platform.

THIS WEEK…
MATCH #13
WHAT: UC San Diego (6-4-2, 1-1-2 Pac-12) at Sacramento State (3-7-2, 0-1-2 Big West)
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 4 PM PT
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com

MATCH #14
WHAT: UC Irvine (6-5-2, 2-1-1 Big West) at Sacramento State (3-7-2, 0-1-2 Big West)
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 4 PM PT
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com

GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | UC San Diego | UC Irvine | The Big West

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAINS!
• Seniors Zac Giles and Nick Strangio have been named captains for the 2026 season

CRISS-CROSS(OVER) APPLESAUCE
• Wednesday's match against traditional Big West for UC San Diego will be the Hornets' second "crossover" match of the year after hosting Gonzaga last week
• Sacramento State fell to the Bulldogs, 3-1, at home
• The Hornets have one more Pac-12 crossover contest remaining following Wednesday's match, traveling to Corvallis, Ore., to take on Oregon State (Oct. 21)
• With only three soccer playing members on the men's side in the Pac-12, The Big West entered into a scheduling agreement designed to strengthen and sustain Division I men's soccer opportunities across the region
• As part of the partnership, usual Big West members California Baptist, Cal Poly, UC Riverside, and UC San Diego will compete as affiliate members of the Pac-12 alongside Oregon State, San Diego State, and Gonzaga
• The Big West features the Hornets, Utah Valley, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara
• The crossover games do not count toward the league standings with the top four schools qualifying for The Big West Championship at the end of the year

SCOUTING UC SAN DIEGO
• The Tritons enter the week with a 6-4-2 overall record and a 1-1-2 mark in Pac-12 play
• Usually full-time members of the Big West, this will be the final year in the league for UCSD, which transitions to the West Coast Conference in 2027
• UC San Diego drew at UC Riverside (2-2) and fell at Oregon State (1-0) last week
• The Tritons' last win was a 2-1 triumph over Gonzaga in conference play on Oct. 3
• Of the team's six wins, four of them have come on the road where UCSD is 4-1-1 entering the week
• Junior forward Ryan Namdar leads the team with five goals and 11 points, putting 12 of his 19 shots on frame
• The Tritons have outscored opponents, 18-10
• Senior goalkeeper Nic Thiele has played all but 13 minutes in net, posting a 0.84 goals against and 37 saves (.787 save percentage) to go with four shutouts

SERIES NOTABLES
• Wednesday marks the sixth all-time meeting between Sacramento State and UC San Diego -- all as Big West rivals -- with the series tied, 2-2-1
• The Hornets posted a 2-1 win over the Tritons at home last season to snap a three-match winless streak in the series overall
• Sacramento State is 2-0-1 at home against UCSD, compared to 0-2 in La Jolla, Calif.
• Three of the five meetings have been decided by a single goal

SCOUTING UC IRVINE
• The Anteaters enter the week with a 6-5-2 overall record and a 2-1-1 mark in The Big West
• UC Irvine is unbeaten in its last three, posting wins over Cal State Fullerton (3-1) and CSUN (2-1) before a scoreless draw with Cal State Bakersfield
• The Anteaters host San Diego State on Wednesday in a crossover match for UCI before they make the trip to Northern California
• The road has been kind to the Anteaters, who are 3-1-1 away from home this year
• Senior forward Gage Lyons leads the team with five goals and 13 points, ranking tied for second and tied for third, respectively, in the Big West
• UC Irvine ranks tied for second in the Big West with 20 goals scored on the year
• Scott Williams and Joe O'Shaughnessy have split time in net, with Williams seeing the majority of minutes and posting a 0.75 goals against average and 20 saves to go with four shutouts

SERIES NOTABLES
• Saturday marks the 28th all-time meeting between Sacramento State and UC Irvine
• The Anteaters lead the series, 15-8-4, having won the last five straight -- four of those via shutout -- outscoring the Hornets, 11-1, in that stretch
• Sacramento State's last win in the series was a 3-2 triumph at home back in 2021
• The Hornets are 3-5-3 at home against UCI, losing the last two meetings in Sacramento
• Prior to that, Sacramento State was unbeaten in four matches (2-0-2) at home against UC Irvine
• The last 15 meetings have been as Big West rivals, but the two were also foes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for one season in 1998

NET POSITIVE
• Sacramento State has scored 16 goals on the year entering this week's matches, standing fifth in the league and posting the program's highest total since the 2024 squad finished with 26
• Four more goals this year and the Hornets will reach 20 goals as a team for the fifth time in the last eight seasons (not counting the pandemic year of 2020)

FIVE BY FIVE
• Senior Zac Giles' storybook season continued last week with his fifth goal of the year against Gonzaga
• The Lincoln, Calif., native now has five goals to go with his five assists for 15 points to lead the team in all three categories
• Giles is the first Hornet to score at least five goals and assist on at least five others since Ivan Ramirez finished with five goals and five assists in 2016

STAY HOT, ZAC GILES
• The two-time Big West Offensive Player of the Week has at least one point in four of the team's last six matches, and has one in seven of the team's 12 contests
• Giles' 11 career assists rank in a six-way tie for eighth on the school's all-time list along with Kevin Baena (1992-93), Chris Bettencourt (2007-11), Brad Bumgarner (2014-18), David Fraser (2000-02, 2004), and Tim Gaither (1986-89)
• His five assists this season are just one shy of a spot in the single-season top 10 and are four shy of Fernando Cabadas' record of nine helpers in 2009, while his 54 shot attempts rank tied for fifth on the school's single-season chart -- two shy of Cabadas' 2010 total for fourth and 12 back of Max Alvarez's single-season record of 66 set in 2009
• His 28 shots on goal are also three back of a spot in the single-season top 10
• Meanwhile, on the career list, Giles' 106 shots rank eighth in school history, while his 52 shots on goal are two back of the top 10

TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!
• Following Sean Battistessa's scoring exploits against UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Bakersfield, Sacramento State now features three players who have accumulated 10 points on the season: Zac Giles (15), Battistessa (10), and junior midfielder Hiroshi Yang (10)
• It marks the first time since 2022 that the Hornets have had at least three players with 10-or-more points after Francisco Magaña (12 points), Dominic Vegaalban (11), and Austin Wehner (11) accomplished the feat
• Sacramento State enters the week as the only school in The Big West with three players at 10-or-more points, while UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton and Utah Valley have two apiece

"EL REY"-NEVELD
• Senior Eli Reyneveld has been on the back end of three of the last five Hornet goals dating back to his first point of the season against UC Riverside on Sept. 23
• The Modesto, Calif., native has since logged assists against Cal State Bakersfield on Oct. 3, then had a spectacular diving header on Zac Giles' tying goal against Gonzaga on Oct. 7
• His three assists are second on the team behind on the five by Giles and he is one of four Hornets with multiple assists this season

1-2-3 PUNCH
• The Hornets' go-to goal-scoring trio of Giles, junior Sean Battistessa, and junior Hiroshi Yang have combined to score 14 of the team's 16 goals this season -- sporting the highest percentage of goals scored by a trio (87.5 percent) on any team in the Big West entering the week
• Only the UC Santa Barbara threesome of Steinar Bjornsson (six), Donovan Sessoms (four), and Kaden Standish (four) have matched the Sacramento State trio's output this year

WE DON'T WANT TO BOST
• Senior goalkeeper Lucas Bost has been busy in net in 2026, entering the week leading The Big West with 46 total saves and 3.83 saves per match
• Bost tied his career high with eight saves in the 1-1 draw at UC Santa Barbara (Sept. 30), matching his effort in the season opener against UC Davis (Aug. 20) when he stopped eight attempts sent his way in a 3-1 victory over the Aggies en route to his first win as a Hornet
• The Rocklin, Calif., native holds two of the top five single-match save totals in The Big West this year with those two eight-save performances and has another among the top 10 with a five-stop day against Cal State Bakersfield (Oct. 3)

AMONG THE BIG WEST'S BEST
• Giles enters the week leading The Big West in shots (54), shots per match (4.50), and shots on goal (28), while sharing the conference lead in goals (5), assists (5), and points (15)
• He owns the top four single-match shot totals in the league: his nine shots against San Diego State (Sept. 11) and Pacific (Sept. 17) are the most in a match by a Big West player this year, while his eight shots against Gonzaga (Oct. 7) are third, and his seven shots against both Saint Mary's (Aug. 27) and UC Riverside (Sept. 23) are tied for fourth
• Giles' five points against Pacific (Sept. 17) are tied for the most in a match among Big West players
• Yang is tied for seventh in shots (28), eighth in shots per match (2.33), tied for seventh in goals (4), seventh in shots on goal (13), tied for seventh in goals (4), and tied for eighth in points (10)
• His two assists against UC Riverside make him one of six players in The Big West this year with multiple assists in a match
• Battistessa is tied for second in the league along with Giles in goals (5) and is tied for 10th in shots on goal (11) while standing tied for eighth with 10 points

HORNET HONOR ROLL
• Senior Zac Giles has been named the Big West Conference Offensive Player of the Week twice this season on Aug. 24 following the Hornets' opening week matches against UC Davis and No. 21 Grand Canyon and, again, on Sept. 21 following his five-point match against Pacific
• Giles is only the third Sacramento State player to earn offensive player of the week honors twice in a career and only the second to do it in the same season, joining Donovan Sessoms on Sept. 16 and Oct. 21, 2024
• Ivan Ramirez also won two in his career: his first on Oct. 19, 2015 and a second on Sept. 26, 2016
• Giles was also named to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week on Sept. 22 -- the first to be so honored since Sessoms was named to the team and Sean Battistessa was an honorable mention pick in 2024
• Junior Hiroshi Yang was named the Big West Offensive Player of the Week, while freshman Adrian Alvarenga was named the league's Rookie of the Week on Sept. 28 following their efforts in the team's win over UC Riverside
• Both awards were the first of their respective careers
• Yang also earned a spot on the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week a day later