Nov. 6, 2006
FULLERTON, CA - The Big West Conference Tournament champion Cal State Fullerton women's soccer team will compete in familiar postseason surroundings for this weekend's opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament as the Titans head to UCLA's Drake Stadium to kick off postseason competition.
Fullerton, which finished the regular season with an 11-7-2 record and a 4-2-1 mark in Big West play for third place, will meet Southern California rival Loyola Marymount in Friday's first round action at 8 p.m., while host and No. 2 national seed UCLA will meet Mountain West Conference Tournament champion UNLV will kick off tournament play at 5:30 p.m.
Friday's winners will meet in the second round on Sunday (Nov. 12) at 1 p.m.
Tickets for the first and second rounds are \$6 for youth/students and \$8 for adults. One ticket will be good for both matches on Friday.
The Titans, who are making their second-straight postseason appearance and third overall in the history of the program, will be making a return trip to Drake Stadium, the site of their first-ever NCAA Tournament match in 2001.
That season, Cal State Fullerton, led by first-year head coach Ali Khosroshahin, played even with host UCLA in the first-round match-up, holding the national No. 3-seeded Bruins scoreless for the first 48 minutes before UCLA struck for three second-half goals en route to the win.
LMU finished the regular season with a 10-2-6 overall record and a 2-1-4 mark in the always difficult West Coast Conference to finish in fourth place. The Lions are unbeaten in their last five matches (3-0-2), which includes a scoreless draw against defending national champion Portland in their regular season finale.
Junior forward Jamie Bell leads the LMU offense with seven goals and a pair of assists while junior goalkeeper Joslyn Slovek has a 0.58 goals against average and eight shutouts in 18 starts this season.
The all-time series between the Titans and Lions is knotted at 5-5-1 with Cal State Fullerton winning the last two consecutive meetings in 2001 (1-0 at Titan Stadium) and 2005 (2-0 at LMU).
The two schools competed in a preseason scrimmage on Aug. 17 with the Titans emerging victorious, 1-0, on a 55th minute goal by junior Brianna Buffington.
Fullerton is 0-9 all-time against UCLA, although five of the previous meetings have been decided by a single goal. The Titans are 1-2 all-time against UNLV, with the lone win coming in last year's NCAA first-round match-up at Titan Stadium - a 1-0 decision in favor of Cal State Fullerton on an overtime own goal.