Women’s Soccer Heads to the Desert to Face Arizona and Grand Canyon

Kaya Hawkinson. Credit Matt Brown
Kaya Hawkinson. Credit Matt Brown

CAL STATE FULLERTON GAME NOTES (PDF)

FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton women's soccer continues its road swing with a trip to the Grand Canyon State to face Arizona on Friday at 7 p.m. PT and Grand Canyon on Sunday at 1 p.m.

QUICK HITS
• Senior Nano Oronoz and freshman Kristen Swales sit at No. 3 and No. 6, respectively, for the Big West Conference in goals scored on the year. Oronoz bagged a hat trick and Swales pumped in two goals of her own against St. Mary's (Aug. 19). Oronoz also scored the game-winning goal against Fresno State (Sep. 2).

Atlanta Primus is tied for second in the league in assists with three on the year, each of which has been to Nano Oronoz. She also opened her scoring account against Fresno State (Sep. 2), which was off an assist by none other than Oronoz. Primus also scored the game-winning goal at SJSU (Sep. 6) from the penalty spot.

• The Titans are third in the league in shots per game at 12.71 and tied for third in goals per game at 1.57.

• In 2017, Cal State Fullerton qualified for the Big West Conference Tournament for the sixth year in a row, a conference record.

CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Friday's match will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks while Sunday's match is being streamed on Youtube.

OPPONENT AND HISTORY
Sep. 14, 2018 at Arizona | Mulcahy Stadium | 7:00 p.m. PT
The Titans head to Arizona to face a red-hot Wildcats team that has won six straight games and is receiving votes in the NSCAA poll.

Arizona goalkeeper Lainey Burdett has allowed just two goals on the year for a goals-against average of 0.286 which is 15th in the nation. At 2.71 goals per game, the Wildcats have the No. 18 ranked offense in the country as well.

The last time the Titans and Wildcats faced off was on Sep. 28, 2006 at Titan Stadium when Arizona won 2-1. The all-time series record is 1-1-1. CSF drew 2-2 the last time it played at Arizona in 1996.

Sep. 14, 2018 at Arizona | Mulcahy Stadium | 7:00 p.m. PT
The Lopes are 1-7 on the year and are riding a five game losing streak but each of their defeats this season have been by just one goal. In addition, four of those losses have come in extra time.

Grand Canyon scores 0.63 goals per game and allows 1.32.

The last time the Titans and Lopes met was on Sep. 24, 2017 at Titan Stadium and Fullerton earned a 4-0 victory. It was the first matchup between the two programs.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT - THE FEW, THE PROUD
After having nine seniors on the squad last year, all of which contributed to the 2017 Big West Tournament title, this year's squad has just four seniors.

• A jack-of-all-trades for the Titans and preseason All-Big West honoree Nano Oronoz has played 64 matches for the Titans and started 42 of them. She bagged a hat trick against St. Mary's on Aug. 19, becoming the first Titan to achieve that feat since 2015. She also scored the game-winning goal against Fresno State (Sep. 2) and supplied an assist. She has seven goals and six assists for her career.

• Defender Amanda Larsson has taken the field 52 times for Fullerton, including 30 career starts. Through seven matches this season, she has logged the second-most minutes among field players at 610 of a total 656 minutes.

• Midfielder Alba Barrios has played 51 career games in a Titan uniform, including 14 last year with 11 starts. She has scored two goals for her career, both coming as a freshman.

• Midfielder Jessica Simonian is redshirting the 2018 season due to injury so she will be back for the 2019 season. She has started 54 games in her time at Fullerton with 43 starts. She has tallied two goals and seven assists over the last three years.

WELCOME TO ATLANTA
Junior forward Atlanta Primus, a London, England native, is tied for second in the conference in assists through seven matches after she dished out two against St. Mary's (Aug. 19) and one on against Fresno State (Sep. 2). Primus' three assists have all been to Nano Oronoz and Oronoz returned the favor for Primus as she also scored her first goal against Fresno State (Sep. 2). Primus also scored the game-winning goal at San Jose State (Sep. 6) from the penalty spot. She has scored nine goals and dished out now 11 assists in her career. She is three assists away from being tied for 10th all-time in career assists. The preseason All-Big West honoree led the team in 2017 with 20 points (six goals, eight assists).

SANDERS FILLS VOID
Head coach Demian Brown had a hole to fill in the goal left by (now undergrad assistant coach) Morgan Bertsch who was a 2017 first-team all-conference honoree and 2017 Co-Big West Goalkeeper of the Year. In stepped sophomore Tianna Sanders who had an outstanding opening weekend. She recorded 11 saves against BYU on Aug. 17 and was a brick wall for the Titans. Sanders recorded her first two career clean sheet against Fresno State (Sep. 2) and San Jose State (Sep. 6).

COACH HITS TRIPLE DIGITS
With the win against CSUN on Oct. 1, 2017, head coach Demian Brown notched his 100th-career win.  Over his 11 years as head coach, Brown has steered the Titans to four Big West regular season championships (2007, 2012, 2014, 2015) and five Big West Tournament championships (2007, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017) representing the league as the Big West's automatic qualifier at the NCAA Tournament for four of the last six years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017) in addition to the Titans' postseason trip in 2007. 

INSTANT IMPACT LINDAHL
Sophomore Delaney Dombek Lindhal, a Southern California native that attended Mission Viejo High School, spent her first year of college at Iowa. But she transferred to Fullerton over the summer and has been a stalwart in Demian Brown's lineup as she has started all seven matches thus far and has the most minutes played of all field players at 613 of 656 total minutes. Lindahl recorded an assist for the Titans against San Jose State (Sep. 6).

NEXT IN LINE
The 2017 Titans featured seniors such as Samantha Koemans (five goals, five assists) Kaycee Hoover (five goals, two assists), Tala Haddad (three goals, three assists), Maribell Morales (three goals, one assist), Connie Caliz (two goals, one assist), all of which played at least 20 of the 22 games for the Titans and over 1,000 minutes. The 2018 squad will have to step into new roles and replace their productivity but Brown feels the team is capable and excited for the challenge.

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 (@CSUF_WSoccer) and Instagram accounts (@csufwomensoccer).

ATHLETICS TICKETS

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