FULLERTON, Calif. – Sarah Fajnor deposited a shot into the back of the net with a little more than four minutes left in the first overtime period as Cal State Fullerton defeated UC Irvine, 2-1, Sunday afternoon at Titan Stadium.
Fajnor's goal clinched the Titans (8-10-0, 5-3-0) the No. 3 seed in the Big West Conference tournament hosted by Long Beach State beginning Thursday. The Titans will once again take on the Anteaters (13-6-1, 5-2-1), who settled into the No. 2 seed with the loss. CSUN clinched the Big West Conference regular season title with a win over Hawai'i on Sunday and will face No. 4 Long Beach State, a 1-0 winner over UC Santa Barbara on Sunday.
"I'm extremely proud of the women for their effort today," said Titans head coach Demian Brown. "For our conference to have three games going on simultaneously and each being extremely important for deciding who's in the conference tournament; I think at all three facilities there was a fair amount of stress and anxiety and for our women to understand that, know that, and find a way to pull it out is fantastic for us."
With the match tied 1-1 in the 96th minute, Kaycee Hoover controlled the ball in the middle of the attacking third and sent a pass to Connie Caliz. The Titans midfielder then sent the ball out wide to the right side where Fajnor dribbled the ball into the box. She reversed the ball from her right foot to her left and then fired a low shot that found the back of the net at the far post past Anteaters goalkeeper Maddie Newsom to give the Titans the victory.
"It's absolutely incredible," said Fajnor of scoring the game-winning goal to send the Titans into the tournament. "At halftime, when we were back on the field, we talked about how this was our last 45 minutes guaranteed of season and we didn't want our season to end there. We talk about (going for) 'four' (Big West titles) all the time and 'four' doesn't get there if we don't get it done."
Perhaps just as important as Fajnor's game-winner, freshman defender Savannah Sloniger made a critical play in the 88th minute to ensure the match stayed knotted at 1-1. The play started innocently enough as an Anteaters player sent a long, seemingly harmless cross toward the box. The ball took a high bounce and went over Sloniger's head and behind to UCI forward Noel Baham near the spot, who had no one in front of her except Titans goalkeeper Jennifer Stuart. The Titans keeper charged at Baham and the bouncing ball, but Baham got a piece of the ball as it trickled behind Stuart and looked to be destined for the back of the net. But Sloniger recovered and cleared the ball away just before it went across the goal line to keep the match tied.
"I just know that, since I didn't win the first ball and Jenn was coming out that there was going to be no one back there and since I missed the first one that I needed to make up for my mistake and get back and save that," Sloniger said. "I couldn't let it be my fault that we lost. Our team has worked so hard and there was no way that we were going to lose that game."
The Titans fell behind in the first half after Elizabeth Hutchison poked a loose ball inside the box near the spot and looped it over Stuart, just under the crossbar and into the net to give the Anteaters a 1-0 edge in the 44th minute.
The Titans equalized it in the 67th minute as Jessica Simonian took a free kick from the near sideline and sent the ball inside the six-yard box, where an Anteaters defender attempted to head the ball toward Newsom but instead found the back of the net to give Fullerton the goal.
"We just talk about putting balls in dangerous spots and that's exactly what Jess did," Brown said. "It's a hard ball to defend so we'll chalk that up to good training."
Fullerton will now face UC Irvine for the second straight time in the first round of the Big West Conference Tournament, which will be hosted by Long Beach State at George Allen Field on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. following the CSUN-Long Beach State match set for 5 p.m. Should the Titans advance Thursday, they will play for their fourth straight Big West Conference Tournament title on Sunday at 1 p.m., which will be broadcast on Fox Sports Prime Ticket.
"We go in with a lot of confidence because, as we start our next week of training, our record to this point is nonexistent," Brown said. "We are 0-0-0 and there's one game in front of us that we have to pay attention to against a familiar opponent in Irvine and the idea is real simple; it's one and then move on to the next."
Notes: Sunday was also the Titans senior day as Ali White, Ivy Diego, Tatiana Rizzotti and Jennifer Stuart were all recognized in a pregame ceremony on the field. "For it to be senior day, I had told the team right before we started the half; we talked about 'play like seniors.,' Fajnor said. "This was our opportunity for everyone to play like a senior because it could be our last game of the season and no one wanted that."… "It meant everything because I know for some of them it was the last time they were ever going to see the field and they've become like my sisters and I wasn't ready to be done and I wanted to keep playing with them for as long as we can," said Sloniger about winning on Senior day… Sunday's win marked the first time this season that Fullerton has won a match when trailing at the half. The Titans were 0-5-0 prior to the win… Fajnor scored six goals in her final eight matches to lead the team. Her six goals in conference were also the most goals scored by a player in the Big West… Stuart logged the 32nd victory of her Titans career on Sunday, which is tied for second most all time. She also made four saves which gives her 194 for her career, ranking fourth all-time in the CSF record book… The Titans have now advanced to the Big West Tournament for five straight years. The last time Cal State Fullerton was not in the conference tournament was in 2011, when the squad went 9-8-3 overall and 3-4-1 in conference… The Titans have not recorded a draw yet this season and this is the second straight year Fullerton did not register a tie in conference play… Sunday's match was just Fullerton's second match of the season that required overtime and first at home. They lost, 1-0, at UNLV in double overtime on a penalty kick back on Sept. 18…Caliz and Hoover recorded their third and second assists of the season respectively… The Titans wrap up the season with a 7-2-0 record at Titan Stadium this season, the eighth time in program history the team has recorded seven wins or more at home. The team also drew 6,588 fans to Titan Stadium this year, the fifth most in program history.
