LONG BEACH, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine needed a shootout to settle things in their Big West Conference Tournament tilt Thursday night after playing to a 1-1 draw in regulation. The Anteaters would prevail 4-2 on penalty kicks to end the Titans season.
The Titans (8-10-1) missed a pair of kicks in the shootout while Grayson Galbraith knocked in the final kick for the Anteaters (13-6-2) to send them to the tournament final against Long Beach State on Sunday. The 49ers defeated No. 1 seeded CSUN, 1-0, in the first match of the night on Thursday.
The Titans streak of three straight Big West Tournament titles was snapped. They remain the only program to accomplish the feat, having done it twice.
"I am extremely impressed and proud of my women for how they played throughout the course of tonight's match," said Titans head coach Demian Brown. "I just think, over the last five years for our program to be in the conference tournament just represents the program for what we've been and obviously players like Sarah (Fajnor and Jennifer Stuart) represent the program for what we've been and hope to continue to be."
The Titans struck first in the match as Sarah Fajnor notched her seventh goal in the last nine matches. Jessica Simonian sent a cross into the box where Anteaters goalkeeper charged and leapt to try and make the two-handed catch, but the ball bounced off her hands and Fajnor pounced on the loose ball and put it in the net to put Fullerton up 1-0 in the 29th minute. She finished as the team leader in scoring with 16 points (7 goals, 2 assists), scoring a goal in seven of her final nine matches.
"I wasn't close anymore," said Fajnor about her torrid scoring down the stretch. "I really focused on trying to do the little things right. My touch; it wasn't about power on some of the shots. It was, 'low to the far post' or keeping on frame; allowing rebounds and those kind of things because I think in previous years I thought that I had to kill the ball and that's not the reality of it. Some of the goals I scored were really ugly and they were toe-pokes and that's okay because a goal's a goal."
The Anteaters responded 10 minutes later as Kelsey Texeira cashed in a corner kick for UC Irvine, heading in Reema Bzeih's delivery into the goal to tie the score just before the halftime break.
For the next 70 minutes, the score remained that way as the teams traded chances and close calls. The Anteaters outshot the Titans 12-4 in the second half and first overtime with Titans goalkeeper making six of her eight saves during that stretch. Fullerton responded in the second overtime with four shots in the second extra period and four corner kicks to UC Irvine's zero.
Stuart made a season-high eight saves in her final match as a Titan.
"I'm so proud of my team," Stuart said. "This was an unfortunate ending and it's the way soccer games have to end sometimes but I couldn't be more proud of my team."
Stuart finishes her illustrious Titans career with 32 victories, the second most in Titans history. Here 16 shutouts are tied for second with Lindsey Maricic all-time. She is ranked third all-time in games played in net (54), games started in goal (52), goalie minutes played (4,757), save percentage (.805), and goals against average (0.93) while placing fourth all-time in total saves (202).
"I'm just so thankful that God gave me this opportunity and the ability that so many people don't have to come out and play soccer every day," Stuart said. "I loved coming out and grinding it out, every day, every game. I'm just so thankful and happy and I'm ready to move on to the next chapter."
Notes: Thursday's match officially goes down as a draw, the first for the Titans this season… The Titans have appeared in the Big West Conference Tournament five straight years. The last time they did not make it was in 2011… Simonian notched her fifth assist of the year, which led the team.