SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The penultimate week of regular season play has the Sacramento State women's soccer team on the road to start as the Hornets play a match outside of the state of California for only the second time this season before coming home for the first of back-to-back matches at Hornet Soccer Field.

For the second straight match, Sacramento State will face a top of the table team as the Hornets travel to Orem, Utah, on Wednesday (Oct. 21) to take on Big West co-leader Utah Valley at 5 p.m. PT. Sacramento State then comes home to face CSUN on Saturday (Oct. 24) at 3 p.m.

THIS WEEK…
MATCH #16
WHAT: Sacramento State (5-5-5, 1-3-3 Big West) at Utah Valley (9-4-3, 5-0-2 Big West)
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026
WHERE: Orem, Utah
TIME: 5 PM PT
STADIUM: UCCU Stadium
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: GoUVU.com

MATCH #17
WHAT: CSUN (5-5-6, 3-1-3 Big West) at Sacramento State (5-5-5, 1-3-3 Big West)
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 3 PM PT
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com

GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | Utah Valley | CSUN | The Big West

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

SENIOR DAY SATURDAY
• Prior to kick off against CSUN on Saturday, the Hornets will pay tribute to their four seniors on the roster and recognize them for their contributions to the program: Ellie Farber, Lexi Schroeder, Candace Ching, and Hayley Hartsburg
• "Senior Day" ceremonies will begin approximately 15 minutes prior to kick off

SCOUTING UTAH VALLEY
• The Wolverines enter the week with a 9-4-3 overall record and a 5-0-2 mark in The Big West
• Utah Valley has won its last three and is unbeaten in its last eight (6-0-2) contests dating back to a 2-1 loss at Gonzaga on Sept. 16
• Wednesday marks the 10th home match for the Wolverines this season as they are 4-3-2 in their previous nine home appearances
• Two of their five shutouts came last week after blanking California Baptist and UC Riverside
• Meanwhile, Utah Valley sports the league's highest-scoring offense with 32 goals, while allowing the fourth-fewest in the league (15)
• Senior forward Nixan Jackson leads the team with 20 points on five goals and 10 assists -- the latter statistic ranking tied for third in the NCAA
• Senior forward Sadie Beardall has scored a team-high eight goals and is second on the team with 19 total points
• Utah Valley has four players who has scored four-or-more goals this year
• Freshman goalkeeper Madeleine Boucher has started 15 matches, posting a 0.84 goals against average and making 46 saves (.793 save percentage) to go with five shutouts

SERIES NOTABLES
• Wednesday marks only the second-ever meeting between Sacramento State and Utah Valley in women's soccer
• The Hornets won the inaugural head-to-head match up back in 2003, posting a 4-3 win at home on Oct. 28

SCOUTING CSUN
• The Matadors enter the weekend with a 5-5-6 overall record and a 3-1-3 mark in The Big West, standing in a three-way tie for third along with UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego
• Four of CSUN's five wins this year have come on the road where the Matadors are 4-4-1
• CSUN travels to UC Riverside on Wednesday before heading to Northern California
• The Matadors drew with Cal Poly (1-1) and California Baptist (0-0) last week and are unbeaten in their last six (3-0-3) dating back to a conference-opening defeat against UC San Diego on Sept. 23
• Junior forward Yasmin Azar leads the team with 15 points, scoring five goals and adding five assists, putting 15 of 27 shots on goal
• Sophomore midfielder Ariana Lopez-Angel (12) and senior forward Jordyn Canister (11) are also in double figures in points
• Senior goalkeeper Hayden Mauldin has played every minute in net, posting a 1.69 goals against average and 100 saves (.787 save percentage) to go with three shutouts

SERIES NOTABLES
• CSUN leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 7-4-1, but this will be the head-to-head meeting as Big West rivals
• The Hornets and Matadors were Big Sky Conference rivals from 1996-2000, with CSUN winning four of the six matches
• Sacramento State has won the last two meetings in the series -- both by identical 1-0 scores -- in 2024 (at home) and 2025 (in Northridge)
• Prior to those two meetings, the two schools hadn't faced one another since 2018
• The Hornets' win in 2024 snapped a seven-match winless streak (0-6-1)
• Sacramento State is 3-3-1 against the Matadors at home in the series, snapping a four-match winless streak (0-2-2) with the win in 2024
• Three of the Hornets' four wins in the series have come via 1-0 victories, the other was a 3-1 triumph in 1997 at home

HORNET HONOR ROLL
• 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
• Jules Colchico became the third Hornet honored this year, picking up rookie of the week honors on Oct. 12 following her game-winning goal against Cal State Bakersfield

SQUAD GOALS
• Powered by eight different goal scorers this season, Sacramento State's 20 goals have already surpassed last year's total (16) with four regular season matches remaining and are the most since the 2019 squad scored 28 times
• The team's 53 points are also seven more than last year's total and just shy of the 56 in 2024

"HART" IN THE RIGHT PLACE
• Junior goalkeeper Hayley Hartsburg had her busiest day in net as a Hornet netminder last week at UC San Diego, finishing with a career-high 10 stops against a barrage of Triton shot attempts
• The 10 saves surpassed her previous high of eight set at Long Beach State on Oct. 4 and were the most saves by a Sacramento State goalkeeper since Izzy Palmatier finished with 11 at home against Hawai'i on Sept. 4 of last year
• Entering the week, Hartsburg's 10 stops are tied for the sixth-most in a match in The Big West this season and is one of seven double-digit totals from a conference keeper in 2026
• The total was also two shy of a spot in the school's single-match top 10

TIMMONS TIME
• After missing the better part of nine matches due to injury, sophomore goalkeeper Delaney Timmons made her return to the Hornet net in relief at UC San Diego, finishing with five saves over the final 15 minutes
• She followed that up by adding five more stops against Cal State Fullerton three days later in her first start since Aug. 23 at Nevada, setting a new career-high against the Tritons and matching it against the Titans

SAVE TONIGHT
• Sacramento State's 16 saves against UC San Diego (15 by the goalkeepers and one team save via a defender) are tied for the most by a team in a single match in The Big West this year, along with the Tritons' 16 stops against Utah Valley on Sept. 26
• The 16 saves are tied for the third-highest single-match total in the nation this year, trailing only the 19 stops by Mount St. Mary's against Fairfield on Sept. 26 and Texas State's 18 against San Diego State on Oct. 4
• Overall, the Hornets' 81 saves are third in The Big West behind Cal State Bakersfield (114) and CSUN (102) as is the team's .794 save percentage

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 15 matches -- including a run of three straight from Aug. 27-Sept. 10 when she scored four 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

WELCOME TO THE CLUB!
• A week after teammate Sadie Stoll officially made her Division I debut against Cal State Bakersfield, freshman Ava Clonce stepped onto the field for the first time as collegian following a redshirt year at Ole Miss
• The Roseville, Calif., native played 47 minutes against UC San Diego and added 19 more against Cal State Fullerton last week
• Clonce was a three-star recruit out of Woodcreek HS by Top Drawer Soccer, helping the Timberwolves to a pair of Capital Valley Conference titles and two runners-up
• She finished her prep career with 25 goals and 29 assists, including 14 goals and 15 assists as a junior

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

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 (Oct. 10), has now scored first in nine of the team's 15 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 fifth in The Big West behind Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara (11)

ALL TIED UP
• With its draws against UC Riverside (Sept. 30) and Long Beach State (Oct. 3), 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)

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS... EVERYBODY
• Sacramento State's 21 shot attempts and the 12 shots on goal against Cal State Bakersfield (Oct. 10) 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 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 91 of its 187 shots on goal (.487), entering the week with the highest such percentage in the league, just ahead of Long Beach State (.485)

AMONG THE BEST IN THE BIG WEST
• Candace Ching stands among the top 10 in the league in goals (t5th) and points (t7th) 
• Ellie Farber's two game-winning goals are tied for fourth in the league
• 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 10th-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
• 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
• 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
• Aside from Hartsburg's performance against UC San Diego, sophomore Alexa Malaspina's eight saves against Saint Mary's (Sept. 10) are tied for 13th on the league's single-match list