Read OC Register StoryMirin Fader of the Orange County Register profiled Sarah Fajnor of the Cal State Fullerton women's soccer team. The junior leads the team with six goals and 14 points overall and was named to the Big West All Conference First Team for the first time in her career on Wednesday.
By Mirin Fader | Read the full story here
Sarah Fajnor was meant to be a Titan.
It's not just that her parents, Craig and Debbie, bring Fathead posters of Fajnor's smiling face to games and sit in row S for Sarah, or that they've missed just three games in their daughter's college career.
It's that Fajnor, a Fullerton native, made a promise to her parents when she was 10.
"We used to go to the Fullerton games and she would say to me, 'Mom, when I go to college, I want to play here,'" Debbie Fajnor said, "'and I'm going to look up into the stands and I'm going to see you and dad, and you're going to be cheering me on.'"
That couldn't be more true for Fajnor, who usually has 10 to 12 family members and friends screaming for her in Titan Stadium.
The 5-foot-4 junior forward leads the three-time defending Big West Conference Tournament champion Titans (8-10 overall, 5-3 Big West) with six goals and two assists.
Fajnor's overtime goal against UC Irvine on Sunday, which led to her being named Big West Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, gave the Titans the No. 3 seed in the Big West Tournament, which begins today.
As a recent practice comes to a close, Fajnor points to the locker room in the stadium, which lists the Titans' NCAA appearance years.
2005. 2006. 2007. The glory years – including a Sweet 16 berth in '05 – under former coach Ali Khosroshahin and current coach Demian Brown, who was an assistant then.
That's when Fajnor fell in love with Cal State Fullerton.