FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton women's soccer is set to compete in two exhibition matches this weekend when the squad plays at San Diego State on Friday at 7 p.m. PT and Sunday at home against CSUN at 5 p.m. These matches are the team's tune-up matches before the season-opening match at home against BYU on Aug. 17 at 7 p.m.
After a successful Blue/Orange Scrimmage on Aug. 4, the Titans now shift their focus to the Aztecs and the Matadors. SDSU went 12-8-2 in 2017 and 7-2-2 in Mountain West play. The Aztecs won the Mountain West Tournament Championship and reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
CSUN posted a 9-4-8 record in 2017, went 4-1-3 in Big West play to earn a second-place finish overall in the regular season standings. CSUN then fell to the Titans in the final of the Big West Conference Tournament in penalty kicks.
The Titans lost a lot of talent and experience from the 2017 squad including Sarah Fajnor, a first-team All-Big West honoree that scored six goals and distributed five assists. Additionally, head coach Demian Brown has to fill a void in the goal left by Morgan Bertsch who was also a first-team all-conference honoree and was named Co-Big West Goalkeeper of the Year. 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 played at least 20 of the 22 games for the Titans and over 1,000 minutes.
However, the cupboard is not bare by any stretch. To name a few, the team welcomes back the leading point-getter in junior forward Atlanta Primus who tallied six goals and eight assists (20 points). Primus started all 22 games for the Titans last year. Sophomore Samantha McKenna, who was named to the 2017 All-Big West Freshman team, returns and Brown hopes that she can continue to improve on her three goals and three assists last season. Senior Nano Oronoz was a first-team All-Big West honoree last year, started all 22 games and played the most minutes of all the field players.
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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.
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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).
