SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fresh off its first-ever Big West victory last week, the Sacramento State women's soccer looks to continue that momentum with a pair of matches against two of the league's top sides.

The Hornets -- now unbeaten in their last three matches (1-0-2) -- head to La Jolla, Calif., to take on UC San Diego on Wednesday (Oct. 14) at 7 p.m., before welcoming league co-leader Cal State Fullerton on Saturday (Oct. 17) at 1 p.m. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.

THIS WEEK…
MATCH #14
WHAT: Sacramento State (5-3-5, 1-1-3 Big West) at UC San Diego (6-3-4, 2-1-2 Big West)
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026
WHERE: La Jolla, Calif.
TIME: 7 PM PT
STADIUM: Triton Soccer Stadium
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: UCSDTritons.com

MATCH #15
WHAT: Cal State Fullerton (6-2-5, 3-0-2 Big West) at Sacramento State (5-3-5, 1-1-3 Big West)
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 1 PM PT
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAINS!
• Seniors Ellie Farber and Lexi Schroeder have been named team captains for the 2026 season
• Farber is now a three-time team captain after earning the honor for the first time in 2024
• This is Schroeder's first year as a captain

SCOUTING UC SAN DIEGO
• The Tritons enter the week with a 6-3-4 overall record and a 2-1-2 mark in Big West play following a 2-0 win over UC Riverside last week
• This is the final season in the Big West for UCSD, which will join UC Santa Barbara in the West Coast Conference in 2027
• Last week's win over UCR snapped a three-match winless streak (0-1-2) for the Tritons, winning for the first time since a 1-0 win over CSUN on Sept. 23
• UC San Diego is 3-2-2 at home and has allowed the second-fewest (10) goals in the Big West
• Eleven different players have scored for the Tritons this year, including four players with two goals each
• Goalkeeper Charlotte Wilfert has played all but 10 minutes in net, posting a 0.70 goals against and 53 saves (.855 save percentage) to go with six shutouts

SERIES NOTABLES
• This is the first-ever meeting between Sacramento State and UC San Diego in women's soccer

SCOUTING CAL STATE FULLERTON
• The Titans enter the week with a 6-2-5 overall record and share the top spot in the Big West table alongside Utah Valley with 11 points and a 3-0-2 league mark
• Fullerton travels to Long Beach State on Wednesday before heading to Northern California
• The Titans are unbeaten in their last eight matches (5-0-3) dating back to a loss to then-No. 1 Stanford on Aug. 30 by a 7-0 score
• Cal State Fullerton has outscored opponents 20-6 in that stretch and allowed three of those six goals in one match against CSUN that ended in a 3-3 draw
• The Titans are winless on the road entering the week, going 0-2-4 away from Titan Stadium
• Senior forward Cassie Villanueva leads the team with seven goals and seven assists for 21 points, ranking among the top three in the Big West
• Goalkeeper Allison Craycroft has seen the majority of minutes in net, posting a 1.51 goals against and 51 saves (.750 save percentage) along with five shutouts

SERIES NOTABLES
• Saturday will be only the second-ever meeting between Sacramento State and Cal State Fullerton in women's soccer
• The two schools met back in 1995 with the Titans posting a 5-2 win at home in only the Hornets' second season of NCAA competition

COLCHICO PICKS UP BIG WEST TOP ROOKIE OF THE WEEK HONORS
• This season has been two years in the making for third-year sophomore Jules Colchico, who was named the Big West Rookie of the Week on Monday
• Colchico, who is making her collegiate debut this season after battling through two seasons worth of injuries, netted the game-winning goal against Cal State Bakersfield in the Hornets' lone match last week -- the first score of her collegiate career
• The goal comes after she notched assists against UC Irvine (Sept. 23) and Long Beach State (Oct. 3) for her first career points earlier this season

HORNET HONOR ROLL
• Thanks to Monday's rookie of the week award from the Big West, Colchico became the latest Hornet to be honored by the conference office in 2026
• Mia Jackson was named the season's first offensive player of the week on Aug. 17 following her brace in her Hornet debut against Pacific
• Candace Ching earned offensive player of the week laurels on Aug. 31 after her two goals three minutes apart lifted the Hornets to a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Southern Utah

LET'S PLAY TWO!
• Saturday marks the second time this season that the Sacramento State men's and women's teams will host a doubleheader at Hornet Soccer Field
• The first came on Sept. 23 when the women drew with UC Irvine, 1-1, while the men posted a 3-1 victory over UC Riverside
• Dating back to the debut of the women's program in 1994, the Sacramento State men's and women's teams have played 62 total doubleheaders at home
• The Hornet women have fared well in their half of those doubleheaders, posting a 32-21-9 all-time record, while the men are 26-30-6 in their half
• The women are 4-3-3 in their last 10 doubleheaders, while the men are 3-7 in their last 10
• The Hornets have swept a doubleheader 11 times since 1994, last doing so on Aug. 31, 2023, when the men shut out Utah Tech and the women shut out UC Riverside by identical 1-0 scores
• Sacramento State played a record seven doubleheaders in 2007, with the women finishing unbeaten at 6-0-1 in those contests while the men were 2-5

FIRST THINGS FIRST
• Early leads are nothing new for the Sacramento State women's soccer team which, after Jules Colchico's first career score against Cal State Bakersfield last week, has now scored first in nine of the team's 13 matches
• Eight different Hornets have accounted for those nine first goals with only co-captain Ellie Farber twice getting her team on the scoreboard first
• Lexi Schroeder (Pacific), Mandaquit (San Francisco), Tierra Pickell (Nevada), Candace Ching (Saint Mary's) and, now, Colchico, have accounted for the other scores
• The team's nine first goals are tied for second in The Big West along with Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton, and trailing only UC Santa Barbara (10)

ANOTHER FIRST
• There have been many firsts this year for the Hornets, but last Saturday's victory over Cal State Bakersfield was historic as Sacramento State posted its first-ever conference victory as members of the Big West

WELL THAT PUTS AN END TO THAT
• Last Saturday's win over Cal State Bakersfield put the kibosh on a couple of significant streaks for the Hornets
• The win first ended a seven-match winless streak for Sacramento State this season dating back to a 2-1 win over Southern Utah on Aug. 27
• Aside from it being the Hornets' first-ever Big West win, the win over the 'Runners also halted an eight-match winless run in conference matches dating back to a 5-0 victory over Eastern Washington in Big Sky Conference play last year on Oct. 5

SQUAD GOALS
• Sacramento State has outscored opponents by an 20-16 margin this year, powered by eight different Hornets who have found the back of the net 
• The team's 20 goals have already surpassed last year's total (16) with six regular season matches remaining and are the most since the 2019 squad scored 28 times
• The team's 53 points are seven more than last year's total and just shy of the 56 in 2024

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS... EVERYBODY
• Sacramento State's 21 shot attempts and the 12 shots on goal against the Roadrunners marked the second-highest match totals in each category for the team this season
• The Hornets had season highs of 22 shots and 15 on frame at Fresno State on Sept. 3
• It marked the third consecutive match that Sacramento State has finished with double-digit shots and their second match this season with 20-or-more -- the first time that has happened since 2017 when the Hornets had 27 against North Dakota and 20 at Weber State that year
• Sacramento State has put 86 of its 172 shots on goal (.500), entering the week with the highest such percentage in the league, just ahead of Long Beach State (.487)

WHAT IN THE BLANK!?!?
• Sacramento State's defense stood tall in its 2-0 victory over Cal State Bakersfield, collecting its second clean sheet of the season and the first since a 1-0 win at UC Davis on Aug. 16
• The Hornets limited the Roadrunners to just two shots on goal -- tied for the fewest by a Hornet opponent this year along with Southern Utah's two on Aug. 27
• The clean sheet was also the first of goalkeeper Hayley Hartsburg's career, stopping both of those Bakersfield shots in the second half of the win

F-"LEX"-ING HER MUSCLES
• Senior co-captain Lexi Schroeder made the most of her team's only match of the week against Cal State Bakersfield
• Aside from playing all 90 minutes for the third straight match (and the sixth time in her last seven contests), Schroeder had a foot in both of the Hornets' goals against the Roadrunners
• Her initial shot went for an assist on teammate Jules Colchico's goal in the 31st minute before weaving her way through the defense and unleashing a curling shot to the right post for her second goal of the year in the 71st minute
• The three points moved her into a three-way tie for second on the team with seven, while the three assists now tie her with Candace Ching for the team lead
• It was also Schroeder's second three-point match of the year after she had a goal and an assist in the opener against Pacific

THREE FOR ME
• Schroeder is one of three Hornets with at least three points in a match this year, joining teammate Mia Jackson, who did it twice against Pacific (Aug. 13) and Long Beach State (Oct. 3), and Candace Ching, who accomplished the feat against both Southern Utah (Aug. 27) and Saint Mary's (Sept. 10)

WELCOME TO THE CHING DYNASTY
• Junior Candace Ching continued her storybook 2026 season with an assist on Marely Velazquez Varela's goal against UC Riverside, giving her five goals and three assists for 13 points entering the week
• The junior has at least one point in six of the team's 13 matches -- including a run of three straight from Aug. 27-Sept. 10 when she scored four goals and assisted on another
• Her team-high 13 points and her team-best five goals this year are the most since Kylee Kim-Bustillos finished with nine scores en route to a 21-point season in 2019
• Her eight career goals are the most of any active Sacramento State player
• Meanwhile, she has put 13 of her 26 shot attempts -- both tops on the team -- on frame

THAT'S FRESH
• With her goal against UC Riverside, newcomer Marely Velasquez Varela posted her second goal of the year to go with an assist for five points to rank fifth on the team
• Her five points are the most for a Hornet true freshman since Abigail Lopez (four goals, two assists, 10 points) and Danna Restom (three goals, six points) in 2021

"HARTS" ON FIRE
• After making her collegiate debut at San Jose State back on Sept. 17, junior goalkeeper Hayley Hartsburg has been the next woman up as part of an injury-plagued Hornet goalkeeping corps
• Having started the team's last six matches with her teammates on the mend, Hartsburg has posted a team-high 27 saves and a .794 save percentage over six appearances, including a career-high eight stops in the draw with Long Beach State
• If she met the league minimums to qualify for the conference leaders, Hartsburg's 1.17 goals against would be fifth in The Big West, while her seven goals allowed would stand as the second-fewest
• In addition, her .794 save percentage and 4.50 saves per match would stand third
• Entering the week, the eight saves were tied for the 10th most by a Big West keeper in a single match this year

WELCOME TO THE CLUB!
• After spending the better part of the season sidelined due to injury, junior Sadie Stoll finally made her Division I debut against Cal State Bakersfield, playing the final 15 minutes of the Hornets' 2-0 win
• Stoll played two seasons at Cosumnes River College, racking up 28 goals and 17 assists for 73 points over her career with the Hawks

ALL TIED UP
• With its draws against UC Riverside and Long Beach State, Sacramento State posted its fourth and fifth draws of the 2026 campaign
• The five regular season draws are the most since the 2024 NCAA Tournament team had six draws during the regular season, then added three more en route to setting the school record with nine
• Of those five draws, three have come during Big West play -- the most during conference play since the 2023 and 2024 seasons had three each
• The school record for conference draws is four set in 2017 (3-3-4) and matched in 2019 (5-0-4)

AMONG THE BEST IN THE BIG WEST
• Candace Ching stands among the top 10 in the league in a couple different categories, including goals (6th) and points (t5th), while ranking just outside the top 10 in both shots (12th) and shots on goal (t11th) 
• Ellie Farber's two game-winning goals are tied for third in the league
• Ching and Schroeder are tied for 12th in the league in assists
• Sacramento State's five goals against Pacific (Aug. 13) are tied for the third-most in a match among Big West schools this year
• The Hornets' 22 shots at Fresno State (Sept. 3) are tied for the eighth-most in the league in a match
• Jackson's four points against Pacific and Ching's four against Southern Utah (Aug. 27) are tied for fifth on the league's single-match list
• The two goals by Jackson and Ching in those matches are tied for second in the league behind only Long Beach State's Cherrie Cox's hat trick against Fresno State
• Jaety Mandaquit's six shots against UC Irvine (Sept. 23) are the most by a Hornet in a match this year and rank tied for fifth among Big West players
• Alexa Malaspina's eight saves against Saint Mary's (Sept. 10) are tied for 10th on the league's single-match list