THIS WEEK
Cal State Fullerton faces off against the West Coast Conference Champions, No. 11 Pepperdine, on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. PT in Malibu, Calif. at Tari Frahm Rokus Field.
CATCH ALL THE ACTION
For Saturday's match, a live stream can be viewed here, and an audio broadcast can be listened to here.
GET SOCIAL
Follow @csufwomensoccer on Twitter for daily updates during the 2017 season. Fullerton Women's Soccer is also on Instagram, so make sure to follow the 2017 team all season @csufwomensoccer
2017 BIG WEST TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
On Nov. 5, Cal State Fullerton became Big West Tournament Champions once again. The Titans have had a record year as they made the Big West Conference Tournament for the sixth consecutive year. Head Coach Demian Brown has steered the program to win their seventh Big West Tournament Championship. Morgan Bertsch anchored the defense in goal by blocking two of CSUN's penalty kicks. Bertsch earned Co-Goalkeeper of the year and ended with Tournament MVP. Kaycee Hoover netted the fourth and final penalty kick to make the Titans champions again.
OPPONENT AND HISTORY
Nov. 11 | 1:00 p.m. PT | Tari Frahm Rokus Field
Fullerton will take on Pepperdine (14-2-3) who won the West Coast Conference with a record of 8-0-1. Currently, the Waves have gone undefeated in their last 13 games. The last time these teams met was in 2014, where Pepperdine defeated Fullerton 2-1 in overtime. At Pepperdine, the Titans have gone 2-4-1 all time. This season, the Waves have outscored their opponent 29-1 in league play. The Titans however topped the Big West with 37 goals scored this season.
Pepperdine is making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance overall and its fifth in the last seven years. While Cal State Fullerton is making its eighth appearance overall and its fourth in the last five years.
QUICK HITS
• Fullerton made their sixth straight Big West Tournament appearance and took home their seventh Tournament title., a record in the Big West Conference.
• Morgan Bertsch was showered with accolades after her stellar season in goal. Bertsch earned Co-Goalkeeper of the year, and Big West Tournament MVP.
• The Titans have out-cornered all their opponents this season 157-94. At 7.48 corner kicks per game, Fullerton ranks 6th in the nation and leads the Big West Conference.
• This season, the goals shot by, Connie Caliz, Tala Haddad, Sophia French, and Nano Oronoz were all balls resulting from a corner kick.
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
The nine returning seniors have made their season presence known out on the field. Of the 34 goals scored this season, 23 of those came from Fullerton's seniors. Sarah Fajnor leads the Titan seniors with six goals for the season. She also leads the team in shots with 55, 23 being on goal. Senior GK Morgan Bertsch has the lowest goals against average with a value of 0.71. Bertsch has spent 1,763:16 minutes in goal this season, and has earned two Big West Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week honors. Samantha Koemans has five goals for the season. Kaycee Hoover has accounted for four goals, and Tala Haddad has three goals this season.Maribell Morales notched two goals for the season. Jazzmin Mancilla returned this season after a season ending ACL injury last year and recorded one goal. 2017 Big West Preseason Big West Team selection Connie Caliz has scored two goals this season for the Titans, on being a game-winning goal against UC Santa Barbara. Johana Rosas recorded one assist for the Titans. As they take on their final games this season, the Titan squad will surely give it all they've got.
FIERCE FAJNOR
Senior Sarah Fajnor is leading the Titans in total points with 16. Fajnor has six goals and four assists, two of her goals this season have been game-winning goals. Fajnor was also named Big West Offensive Player of the Week (09/25) Fajnor comes off a personal best 2016 season, where she spent her time at the top of the leader board for the Titans. Last season, she led the team in total points (16) and goals for the season (6).
BERTSCH BETWEEN THE POSTS
For the second time this season, Cal State Fullerton goalkeeper Morgan Bertsch earned Big West Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week honors for her stellar play in net. The senior, who also won the award on Sept. 26, made a total of eight saves as the Titans went 1-1 last week. Bertsch stopped two shots and allowed the game's lone goal in a 1-0 loss to UC Riverside on Thursday. Bertsch and the squad rallied to a 2-0 victory over Long Beach State on Sunday as Bertsch faced 19 shots and saved all six that went on frame, including a one-handed stop.
COACH HITS TRIPLE DIGITS
With the win against Northridge (10/1) Head Coach Demian Brown notched 100 career wins. Over his 11 years as head coach, Brown has steered the Titans to four Big West regular season championships (2007, 2012, 2014, 2015) and four Big West Tournament championships (2007, 2013, 2014, 2015) representing the league as the Big West's automatic qualifier at the NCAA Tournament for three of the last five years (2013, 2014, 2015) in addition to the Titans' postseason trip in 2007. In 2016, Brown finished the season with an 8-10-1 overall record where the Titans made it to the semi-finals in which they lost to UC Irvine.
FINDING THE BACK OF THE NET
Sunday night (10/15), Fullerton took the advantage early as Kaycee Hoover got the ball into the back of the net for her third goal of the season in the 37th minute. Hoover received the ball from Nano Oronoz which was set up off of Atlanta Primus' corner kick.
TITANS SWEEP
Cal State Fullerton women's soccer swept the Big West Player of the Week (9/25) honors as the squad picked up two shutout wins last weekend against San Diego and Grand Canyon at Titan Stadium. Senior forward Sarah Fajnor was named Big West Women's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week while fellow senior goalkeeper Morgan Bertsch garnered Big West Women's Soccer Defensive Player of the Week accolades.
HOOVER HONORED
For the first time in her career, senior Kaycee Hoover earned the Big West Offensive Player of the Week for the week of September 4th. Hoover recorded two goals over the weekend at Titan Stadium. Her first, against Iowa State (9/8) was the goal to solidify the Titans 2-1 win. Her second, would come as a game-winning goal against Utah Valley (9/10) in what was a 3-0 shutout win for CSF. Fullerton scored three goals in the first half, the last time this was recorded was Nov. 11, 2015 against UCSB.
SUPPORT THE TITANS!
Fans can purchase tickets for various Cal State Fullerton athletic events by visiting FullertonTitans.com/Tickets. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 657-278-2783 or by email at athletictixs@fullerton.edu. The Ticket Office is located at the Titan House off of Gymnasium Drive at the eastern end of the Intramural Fields and is open from 10 am – 4 pm PT, Monday – Friday.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (@FullertonTitans) and Snapchat (FullertonTitans). In addition, the women's soccer team has established its own Facebook (Facebook/Cal-State-Fullerton-Womens-Soccer), Twitter (@CSUFWomenSoccer) and Instagram accounts (@csufwomensoccer).
