FULLERTON, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's soccer team defeated CSU Bakersfield 2-1 at home on Thursday night in their regular season finale.
With tonight's win over CSU Bakersfield the Titans will be the #3 seed in the 2022 Big West Championships. Cal Poly won the regular season championship and will be the #1 seed and hosts the semi-finals and finals next week after defeating UC San Diego 1-0. UC Davis defeated Long Beach State on Thursday 1-0 and the Aggies will be the #2 seed while Long Beach will be the #4 seed. The Beach hosts #5 UC Santa Barbara who were idle on Thursday. The Titans will host #6 UC Irvine on Sunday evening who defeated Hawaii 4-1 on Thursday night.
The Titans wrap up the regular season with a 9-5-5 overall record and 6-2-2 record in conference play.
With both sides with everything to play for in Thursday's game, it was a wide attacking game by both sides to start. The Roadrunners put pressure early on the Titans and Mia Ranson made a great save to keep CSUB off the board. Ranson finished the game with five saves.
Both sides are attacking early in this one. Mia Ranson with a big save early!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/q7JyswRq6T
— Titans Women's Soccer (@FullertonWSOC) October 28, 2022
The Titans struck first on a set piece in the 22nd minute. The Roadrunners defense half cleared a ball on a corner kick and Karla Rodriguez volleyed the ball to Hailey Gough who re-directed the ball into the net on the near post. It was the first career goal for Hailey Gough who was moved from defense to the forward position.
23' | GOOALLLLLL TITANS!!! Hailey Gough with her first career goal to put the Titans up 1-0#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/URSBuUP6ms
— Titans Women's Soccer (@FullertonWSOC) October 28, 2022
The Titans would strike three minutes later on a goal by Samantha McKenna. Kaylin Raibon threw the ball into Hailey Gough inside the box who played it to Karla Rodriguez who passed a perfect ball to McKenna to head into the net to make it a 2-0 game. It turned out to be McKenna's second game-winning goal of the season.
26' | @sam_mckenna6 with the header on the pass from Rodriguez!!! The Titans take a 2-0 lead in the first half!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/qkdBTTRXbf
— Titans Women's Soccer (@FullertonWSOC) October 28, 2022
The Titans had a couple more shots on goal to finish out the half by Makenna McGill and Kaitlin Taylor but Hollee Hercik made some good saves. Hercik finished the game with 11 saves.
The second half started out the same way with both sides attacking each other. The Titans had 11 shots in the second half and 25 for the game. The Roadrunners had 10 shots in the second half and 16 toal for the game.
CSU Bakersfield brought one back after Chloe Sizemore snuck behind the Titans defense and scored in the 76th minute. The Titans defense was able to hold Bakersfield to two more shots the rest of the half and were able to close out the game and hold onto the 2-1 win.
The Titans will now host one more game at Titan Stadium this season as they will host the UC Irvine Anteaters on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. The winner advances to next Thursday's semi-final round where they will play the No. 2 UC Davis Aggies at Cal Poly. The Titans have played UC Irvine twice this season already. They defeated them 2-1 in a non-conference game on August 25th and tied with them 0-0 on October 2nd at their place.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans), and Instagram (FullertonTitans). In addition, the women's soccer team has established its own Twitter (@FullertonWSOC) and Instagram accounts (@FullertonWSOC).
