SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State men's soccer team opens its 35th Division I campaign with a pair of home matches this week, hosting long-time rival UC Davis and No. 21-ranked Grand Canyon at Hornet Soccer Field to kick-off the year.

The Hornets and Aggies renew their Causeway rivalry -- now as non-conference opponents -- on Thursday (Aug. 20), before the Lopes come to town on Sunday (Aug. 23). Both are scheduled for a 5 p.m. kick-off and will be streamed live on the ESPN+ platform.

THIS WEEK…
MATCH #1
WHAT: UC Davis (4-9-6, 4-3-2 Big West in 2025) at Sacramento State (2-12-4, 1-6-2 Big West in 2025)
WHEN: Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 5 PM
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com

MATCH #2
WHAT: No. 21 Grand Canyon (14-4-5, 3-1-3 WAC in 2025) at Sacramento State Sacramento State (2-12-4, 1-6-2 Big West in 2025)
WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
TIME: 5 PM
STADIUM: Hornet Soccer Field
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetSports.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com

GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | UC Davis | Grand Canyon | The Big West

THAT'S RANK
• Since 1996, Sacramento State is 8-53-5 against opponents ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, having lost its last seven 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 preceded 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 Sacramento State result against a school either ranked or receiving votes came on Oct. 19, 2024, when the Hornets handed UC Santa Barbara a 3-1 defeat at home
• Last season, the Hornets faced-off against three nationally ranked opponents, falling at No. 13 Stanford (5-1), at No. 18 Utah Valley (3-0), and at No. 20 San Francisco (3-0)
• Sunday's match against Grand Canyon marks the fourth time in the last five seasons that the Hornets will face a nationally ranked opponent during the first week of the regular season

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

NEW MAN IN CHARGE
• Sacramento State men's soccer alum and long-time program assistant Matt McDougall was named the Interim Head Coach of the Hornets on July 17 following the announcement that long-time head coach Michael Linenberger would retire prior to the start of the season
• McDougall has been a mainstay on the Sacramento State sidelines for more than two decades, first as a student-athlete (2002-05), then as an assistant (2006-13), assistant head coach (2014-15), and associate head coach (2016-25)
• Linenberger had spent 38 years on the sidelines with the Hornets -- 36 of those as head coach beginning with the 1989 season which made him the longest-tenured head coach (of any sport) in school history
• He was also one of only four to hold their position for more than 30 years: Kim Hughes (women's gymnastics, 34 years); Debby Colberg (women's volleyball, 32 years); and John Smith (baseball, 32 years)
• At the time of his retirement, Linenberger's 36 years as head coach ranked sixth in the nation among active head coaches and was one of only four coaches to spend every season at one school among the top 10 longest-tenured head coaches

BENCH BOSSES
• Joining McDougall on the sidelines is assistant coach Hector "Keko" Grajeda, who is entering his second year on staff and his first in a full-time capacity
• Northern California native Erik Centeno returns to his roots as the program's second assistant after playing one season at Pacific before being drafted by Atlanta United FC with the 19th overall pick in the first round of the 2022 MLS SuperDraft
• Centeno spent the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons with Atlanta United 2 -- the parent club's side in the USL Championship -- making his professional debut on March 12, 2022, against Louisville City
• He then signed with the USL Championship side Birmingham Legion for one season

NEW-LOOK BIG WEST
• Now officially competing as a full-fledged member of the Big West Conference after playing as an affiliate member of the league since entering the conference in 2012, this year's Big West lineup for the Hornets will look a little different
• With only three soccer playing members on the men's side in the new-look Pac-12 Conference, 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, league newcomer California Baptist, along with 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 now features the Hornets, newcomer Utah Valley, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara
• Sacramento State faces each of its Big West rivals once along with Pac-12 crossover games against Gonzaga (Oct. 7), UC San Diego (Oct. 14), and Oregon State (Oct. 21)
• 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

FOR OPENERS
• Sacramento State is a combined 8-26-3 in regular season openers according to available records dating back to the 1986 season
• The Hornets have lost their last five openers -- three of the last four coming against nationally ranked squads in No. 3 Washington (2022), No. 13 Portland (2023), and No. 13 Stanford (2025)
• Sacramento State last opened a season with a victory back in 2019, posting a 2-0 win at San Jose State
• Thursday marks the second time in the last three seasons that the Hornets will open a regular season at home, last falling to Utah Valley in 2024
• The match against UC Davis marks only the 14th time that Sacramento State will open at home in 37 total season openers since 1986
• Sacramento State is 19-14-5 in home openers, and is 2-1-1 in its last four following a 1-1 draw with Utah Tech last season
• The Hornets last home-opening win came in 2023 thanks to a 1-0 win over Utah Tech
• Thursday marks the first time that the Hornets will open a season against UC Davis and the third time that the Aggies will be Sacramento State's first home opponent joining matches in 1993 (a 3-0 Hornet win) and 2010 (a 2-1 Sacramento State win)

HORNETS AT A GLANCE
• Sacramento State is coming off a 2025 campaign that saw the Hornets finish 2-12-14 overall and 1-6-2 in Big West Conference play
• The Hornets return 14 letter winners, but just three starters off last season's roster while welcoming 10 new faces -- five of those transfers
• This year's roster of 10 newcomers matches last year's list of new faces
• 11 of the team's 13 goals scored return for 2026, led by Big West All-Freshman Team selection Allbranly Gue, who led the team in scoring with three goals and two assists for seven total points in his collegiate debut season
• Seniors Zac Giles and Nick Strangio also found the back of the net twice
• In net, senior Lucas Bost split time with the departed Andres Rosales in 2025, posting a 2.00 goals against average and 36 saves in nine matches (eight starts)

SCOUTING UC DAVIS
• Former Big West rival UC Davis is coming off a 2025 campaign that saw the Aggies finish 4-9-6 overall and 4-3-2 in league play
• The Aggies are now members of the Mountain West Conference along with San Jose State, Air Force, Grand Canyon, UNLV, and affiliate member Utah Tech
• UC Davis was picked third in the preseason Mountain West Conference poll with 15 points
• The Aggies reached the semifinals of the Big West Tournament in 2025 before falling to UC Santa Barbara
• UC Davis returns only four of their 20 goals scored last season, losing their top five scorers
• Sophomore defender Nami Banks is the leading returning scorer after finding the back of the net twice in 2025
• The preseason roster lists 18 newcomers for UC Davis for 2026
• Also gone is goalkeeper Noah Schwengeler, who started 18 of the team's 19 matches in net, posting a 1.32 goals against and 59 saves
• Junior Mekhai Wilson returns after appearing in five matches in goal (234 minutes), finishing with a 2.31 goals against and five saves

SERIES NOTABLES
• UC Davis leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 24-13-2, dating back to 1994
• The 39 all-time meetings are the second-most against any single opponent for the Hornets according to available match-by-match records that date back to 1986
• That total trails only the 47 all-time meetings with San Jose State
• The Aggies have won two straight in the series and 10 of the last 11 since the 2017 campaign
• Eight of the last nine head-to-head meetings have been decided by a single goal
• Sacramento State's last win in the series came in 2023 -- a 1-0 victory on the road that saw the Hornets score in the ninth minute and hold on for the shutout
• UC Davis has won the last six matches played in Sacramento as the Hornets haven't won on their home field since a 1-0 win in 2015

NEW CONFERENCES, SAME RIVALRY
• Just because the league badges on the uniform are different in 2026, doesn't mean that the Sacramento State-UC Davis rivalry is any less important
• Thursday marks the first time that the Hornets (Big West) and the Aggies (Mountain West) will meet as non-conference foes since 2011 when Sacramento State posted a 3-2 double-overtime triumph over UC Davis on the road -- just a year before the Hornets became affiliate members of the Big West in 2012
• Both schools did face one another in matches that did not count toward the league standings in 2018 and 2019, but both were still members of the Big West

SCOUTING GRAND CANYON
• The Lopes are coming off a 2025 season that saw them finish 14-4-5 overall and 3-1-3 in Western Athletic Conference play
• GCU finished 9-1-2 at home and 3-0 on neutral fields, but was just 2-3-3 on the road
• The Lopes won the WAC Tournament thanks to victories over Utah Valley, Utah Tech, and San Jose State
• Entering its first season in the Mountain West, GCU was picked to finish atop the league standings with 22 points along with San Jose State, but the Lopes earned four first-place votes to just two for the Spartans
• Grand Canyon then gained the third round of the NCAA Tournament by advancing on penalties against UCLA (3-1) following a scoreless draw and earning a 2-1 win over No. 9 San Diego (2-1) before falling at No. 8 Portland (1-0)
• GCU lost its top four scorers off of last season's squad, including leading scorer Junior Diouf, who finished with a nation-leading 18 goals and six assists in 21 matches
• Junior forward Alan Hermitte is the leading returning scorer after finishing with three goals and two assists in 20 matches (19 as a reserve)
• There will be a new face in net for the Lopes after losing starter Daniel Ibarra, who posted a 0.71 goals against average and 70 saves 

SERIES NOTABLES
• Sunday marks only the fourth-ever meeting between Sacramento State and Grand Canyon in men's soccer with the Lopes winning all three previous matches
• GCU won last year's meeting, 2-1, after converting a penalty in the 84th minute
• Prior to that, the two schools hadn't met since back-to-back matches in 2014 and 2015, won by the Lopes by the scores of 1-0 and 2-1 -- both in overtime -- respectively
• Sunday is the first meeting between the two programs in Sacramento since the inaugural head-to-head match-up in 2014

HOW'S THE WEATHER UP THERE?
• According to available rosters, goalkeeper AJ Bengds is the tallest player ever to suit up for the Hornets in the program's Division I era
• Standing at 6-foot-7, Bengds edged out another Sacramento State keeper -- Andres Rosales, who measured 6-foot-6 -- by an inch for the honor

WE BAND OF BROTHERS
• For the fourth consecutive season, the Hornets will feature a set of brothers on the roster as junior Sean Battistessa will be joined by his younger brother, sophomore 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.

STATE OF THE HORNETS
• When Sacramento State takes the field in 2026, those in the green and gold will represent four different states and two nations outside of the United States
• 22 of the team's 27 members hail from the "Golden State"
• Newcomer Harrison Emert (Des Moines, Wash.) is the first Hornet from the "Evergreen State" since Francisco Magaña (Cowiche, Wash.)
• Newcomer Mateus Romualdo (Murray, Utah) is the first Hornet from the "Beehive State" since goalkeeper Adam Richardson (Riverton, Utah)
• Bengds (Raleigh, N.C.) is the first Hornet from the "Tar Heel State"
• Allbranly Gue (Haiti) and Jakub Kozlowski (Poland) continue a trend of recent international Hornets that includes players who hailed from Mexico (Christo Cervantes), Spain (Pablo Ros), Mozambique (Eloge Iradukunda), England (Jack Larter), New Zealand (Dane Schnell), and Sierra Leone (Dennis Cole) in the last decade

LET'S PLAY TWO!
• The Sacramento State men's and women's teams will play a pair of doubleheaders this season: the first on Sept. 23 (men vs. UC Riverside and women vs. UC Irvine) and Oct. 17 (men vs. UC Irvine and women vs. Cal State Fullerton)
• Dating back to the debut of the women's program in 1994, the Sacramento State men's and women's teams have played a total of 61 doubleheaders at home
• The Hornet women have fared well in their half of those doubleheaders, posting a 32-21-8 all-time record, while the men are 25-30-6 in their half
• The women are 5-3-2 in their last 10 doubleheaders, while the men are 2-8 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 just 2-5

POLL POSITION
• Entering its first season as a full-fledged member of the Big West, Sacramento State was picked seventh in the league's preseason poll according to a vote of head coaches
• UC Santa Barbara received four first-place votes and 34 points overall to stand atop the poll, while UC Irvine was second with two first-place votes and 32 points
• Cal State Fullerton (24), Utah Valley (23 points, one first-place vote), CSUN (17), and Cal State Bakersfield (11) rounded out the poll