SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A run of three-straight matches on the road continues this weekend as Sacramento State travels to Bay Area rival San Jose State on Sunday (Sept. 1) at 6 p.m.
THIS WEEK…
MATCH #3
WHAT: Sacramento State (0-2) at San Jose State (0-1-1)
WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024
TIME: 6 p.m.
WHERE: San Jose, Calif.
STADIUM: Spartan Soccer Complex
WATCH: WAC Digital Network
LIVE STATS: SJSUSpartans.com
SERIES RECORDS
Overall: San Jose State Leads, 22-20-3
Home: San Jose State Leads, 11-9-1
Road: Sacramento State Leads, 11-10-2
Neutral: San Jose State Leads, 1-0
Current Streak: San Jose State won the last meeting
Last Meeting: San Jose State, 4-1 (9/22/23)
Last Meeting in Sacramento: San Jose State, 4-1 (9/22/23)
Last Meeting in San Jose, Calif.: Sacramento State, 3-2 (9/2/21)
GAME NOTES
Sacramento State | San Jose State
WE'LL DO IT LIVE!
• Every home match during the 2024 regular season will be streamed live on the ESPN+ subscription platform, with select road contests available on various streaming platforms
• Links to watch and for live stats for all matches will be posted, as soon as they are available, on the men's soccer schedule page at HornetSports.com
SCOUTING SAN JOSE STATE
• The Spartans enter the week with an 0-1-1 overall record after falling to No. 5-Stanford in the season opener by a 2-1 score and drawing with Cal State Bakersfield, 1-1 in their last match
• Sunday's match with the Hornets is the second in a run of four-straight contests against Big West Conference opponents for SJSU, which meetings Cal Poly (Sept. 5) and UC San Diego (Sept. 12) in its next two matches
• Freshman Daniel Fregoso Bautista and junior Diogo Baptista have accounted for the team's two goals on the year
• Former Sacramento State keeper Edgar Guerra (2022-23) has started both matches in net for the Spartans, posting a 1.50 goals against average and seven saves
• The SJSU roster also features former Hornet Christian Powell (2021-23)
SERIES NOTABLES
• In one of the longest-running rivalries in program history, San Jose State narrowly leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 22-20-3, dating back to available records starting in 1986
• The Hornets had won three-straight matches in the series -- and five of the previous six -- before the Spartans posted a 4-1 win in 2023 in Sacramento
• Sacramento State's last win in the series came on Aug. 28, 2022, posting a 2-1 victory at home
• Sunday marks the first meeting between the two in San Jose since 2021, when the Hornets posted a 3-2 win on Sept. 2
• Sacramento State leads the series on the road, 11-10-2, winning three straight dating back to a 4-2 loss on Sept. 4, 2015
• Three of the last five meetings have been decided by a single goal
• The Hornets have not lost back-to-back matches to the Spartans in the series since the 2011 (4-2) and 2012 (2-1) seasons
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is 60-48-11 against the current Western Athletic Conference alignment, having faced eight of the 10 members
• Following Sunday's match against San Jose State, the Hornets will face one more league rival: affiliate member San Diego State (formerly of the Pac-12) on Sept. 6
• The match against the Aztecs concludes a ru of three WAC opponents in the team's first four matches to start the 2024 season
IT'S BEEN A WHILE
• The 45 matches against San Jose State are the most for Sacramento State against any one opponent since the 1986 season
• Causeway and Big West Conference rival UC Davis ranks second with 37 matches played, followed by Cal Poly (35) in third, Saint Mary's (33) in fourth, following by Air Force and UC Santa Barbara (27 each) in fifth
HORNET NEWCOMER KELLY RECOGNIZED BY TOP DRAWER SOCCER
• Freshman forward Ethan Kelly was one of 11 players from across the country named to Top Drawer Soccer's preseason "Best XI" all-freshman team
• He was the only player from the West Coast to earn a spot, joining student-athletes from Georgetown, Princeton, Clemson, Wake Forest, Wisconsin, Saint Louis, Davidson, Cornell, Tulsa, and Notre Dame
• When you include the first-, second-, and third-team honorees, Kelly is one of two Big West players to be recognized along with Cal State Fullerton's Roberto Ordonez, who was named to the "Best XI" third team
• Kelly competed for the Sacramento Republic FC Academy team and signed a contract to play alongside the first team in 2023 after spending time with the U17 squad, helping the club to back-to-back MLS NEXT Cup playoff appearances while making his first-team debut on April 5, 2023
ACCOUNT OPENED
• Sophomore Donovan Sessoms made his debut in the green and gold a memorable one as it took the Antelope, Calif., native only four minutes to notch his first goal as a Hornet and give his team a 1-0 lead against Utah Valley on Aug. 22
• He became the first Hornet to score a goal in his debut in the green and gold since Axel Ramirez did so in 2021 on a penalty against San Francisco in the season opener
• It was Sessoms' second collegiate goal after he scored against Pacific on Sept. 15 of last year as a freshman at UNLV
ZAC ATTACK
• Sophomore Zac Giles tallied the assist on Sessoms' goal -- the second of his career after tallying a helper at Pacific on Sept. 7 of last season
INTRODUCING...
• Of Sacramento State's numerous newcomers on the roster for 2024, 10 of them made their Hornet debuts in the season opener against Utah Valley, including starts by Sessoms, Gio Ceja, Sean Battistessa, Leonardo Martinez, and Jonathan Dadzie
• Hiroshi Yang, Montgomery Carey, Ethan Kelly, Vincent Padilla, and Angad Singh entered as reserves against the Wolverines
• Kelly, Padilla, and Singh made their first career starts three days later at California
QUINTUPLE AXEL
• Senior Axel Ramirez didn't shy away from taking a shot on Sunday at California, as his five attempts tied his career high set at Western Michigan on Sept. 24, 2021, and were the most since teammate Hasan Alsakati had the same number against UC San Diego on Sept. 30 of last year
• The five shots puts him tied for second in the Big West after the first week of play, while ranking him third with 2.50 shots per match
STOP! HALT! ARRET! ALTO! FERMA!
• You get the picture. One of the nation's top shot stoppers (more on that later...) has picked up right where he left off in 2023, as senior goalkeeper Mac Learned's eight saves ranks second in the Big West entering the week, while his 4.00 saves per match are fourth
• Six of those stops came in Sunday's one-goal decision at California, a total that ranks as the second-most in a single match among Big West keepers behind only UC San Diego's Nolan Premack, who had nine against Duke on the same day
• Learned's 128 career saves are just nine shy of breaking onto the school's career top-10 list, trailing Ryan Duncan (1997-98), who finished with 137 in his two seasons
• Learned's 88 saves in 2023 were good for ninth on the program's single-season list
OH, SAY CAN YOU WCC?
• With schools around the country switching conferences on a seemingly yearly basis, Sacramento State may want to think about applying for affiliate membership in the West Coast Conference as the Hornets are scheduled to face five of the league's nine soccer-playing members on the men's side in 2024
• All five contests will come consecutively beginning with a Sept. 12 match at home against San Francisco and concluding with a trip to Portland to take on the Pilots on Sept. 27
• In between, the Hornets will face Saint Mary's (Sept. 15) and Santa Clara (Sept. 19) on the road and host Pacific (Sept. 22)
• Sacramento State has become a regular WCC opponent over the last five seasons, taking on at least five league members in that time span
THE ROAD MOST TRAVELED
• The season opener against Utah Valley is the first of seven home matches during the regular season, but the only home appearance for the Hornets until Sept. 12 when San Francisco pays a visit to the capital city
• Following the home opener against Utah Valley, six of Sacramento State's next eight non-conference matches will be played away from home
• The seven home matches are the fewest for the Hornets since the 2018 squad played the same number on its home turf
• Three of those home matches will come prior to the start of Big West Conference play — the third time in the last four seasons that Sacramento State will play so few non-conference contests at home
• In fact, the Hornets will play back-to-back home matches only once all year, hosting CSUN and UC Santa Barbara on Oct. 16 and 19
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL
• When Sacramento State and Utah Valley kicked off in the second match of a doubleheader with the women's team on Aug. 22, it marked the earliest season opener for the Hornets dating back to the 1986 campaign
• That match bested the previous earliest start of Aug. 24 in both the 2012 (at Oregon State) and 2018 (at No. 22 Portland) seasons
HELLO, MY NAME IS...
• This year's version of the Hornets will look drastically different as Sacramento State welcomes 14 newcomers and returns a pair of redshirts in addition to its 13 returning letter winners
• It's the most newcomers on a roster for Sacramento State since the 2019 squad featured 16 new faces
RETURN OF THE MAC
• Senior goalkeeper Mac Learned comes back for his fifth season in the green and gold and is the incumbent in net for the Hornets after starting 16 matches in 2023
• Learned spent six straight weeks atop the NCAA leaderboard in total saves, finishing the year ranked No. 3 nationally with 88 saves and No. 7 in saves per game (5.50)
• The Lincoln, Calif., native also ended the year leading the Big West in overall saves, saves per game, and save percentage (.779)
ALL TIED UP
• The Hornets' four draws in 2023 were tied for the second-most in school history, trailing only the seven set during an 11-5-7 campaign in 2010
THE HORNETS, QUICKLY
• Sacramento State is coming off a 2023 campaign that saw the Hornets finish 4-10-4 overall and 1-4-4 in Big West Conference play
• This year's roster features 13 returning letter winners and returns five starters off of last season's squad
• By the numbers, the Hornets return only four of the team's 17 goals scored (Bryan Gutierrez, 2; Hasan Alsakati, 1; Simon Vaca-Lorenzi, 1) and two of the team's 18 assists (Alsakati & Zac Giles) from last season
DEAN OF COACHES
• Head Coach Michael Linenberger enters his 35th season at the helm of the Hornets' program in 2024, a position he has held since 1989
• Linenberger is the longest tenured head coach in the Big West in both overall years as a head coach and years at his current school, edging out UC Davis' Dwayne Shaffer (33 years overall and 28th with the Aggies) and UC Santa Barbara's Tim Vom Steeg (33 years overall and 26th with the Gauchos)
• Linenberger's 226 wins with the Hornets make him one of four Big West coaches to win at least 200 career matches at their current school entering the 2024 campaign, ranking third on that list behind only Vom Steeg (306) and Shaffer (248)
WE BAND OF BROTHERS
• For the second straight season, brothers Jhared (a junior) and Robert Willcot (a sophomore) will take the field for the Hornets
• The duo is believed to be the third set of brothers to play soccer at Sacramento State in the same season, joining Blake and Brady Nunes (2007-08) and Ivan and Omar Oseguera (2017-18)
• They join other brother tandems who have both played for the Hornets at some point in their careers: Mark and Kevin Baena, Mike and Tim Gaither, and Oscar and Danny Goeva.
POLL POSITION
• Sacramento State was picked to finish in a tie for ninth in the 2024 race for the Big West Conference crown according to a vote of the league's head coaches released on Aug. 19
• The Hornets received 18 points to match Cal State Bakersfield for the spot in the poll
• Defending champion UC Irvine picked up four first-place votes and 75 points over to stand atop the coaches poll
• The Anteaters were followed by Cal State Fullerton (3 first-place votes, 66 overall) and UC Santa Barbara (3 first-place votes, 65 overall) to round out the top three
