Alex Calish/ For the Daily Titan
The Cal State Fullerton women’s soccer team will play in the semifinal match of the Big West playoff tournament Thursday. CSUF earned the number one seed in the tournament posting a 7-2-0 Big West conference record accumulating a total of 21 points. It was Cal State Fullerton’s sixth Big West Conference regular season title.
The Titans will play the number four seed UC Irvine Anteaters tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Anteater Stadium.
UCI is hosting the tournament. Both semifinal games and the championship game will be played at Anteater Stadium. As a result, the CSUF versus UCI game is essential a home game for UCI.
The Big West Championship game will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. It will also be broadcast on FOX Sports PrimeTicket. The semifinal winners will play in this game. CSUF has won the Big West Conference Tournament three times in three consecutive years from 2005 to 2007.
The winner of the championship game earns a spot in the NCAA women’s soccer tournament. Hopefully, the Titans will be in that contest, but first they must defeat UCI.
The Titans and Anteaters match is the second game of the night. In the first game, No. 2 and No. 3 ranked Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo play at 5 p.m.
The Titans are coming off a three game winning streak and definitely have the momentum on their side as they face the Anteaters. It is their second three-game winning streak of the season. Meanwhile, the Anteaters finished the season with two scoreless draws against Cal State Northridge and the University of Hawaii.
In their last meeting on Sept. 24, UCI defeated CSUF by a score of 3-1. As of late, the Anteaters have had the Titans number. UCI is 3-0-1 against CSUF in their last four meetings. Five of their last seven meetings have been decided by one goal. This contest is definitely shaping up to be a close one.
Both UCI and CSUF have some stellar scoring stars.
UCI’s Rachel Wood, the University of North Carolina transfer and red shirt senior, is tied for the team in goals with sophomore forward Laura McGrail with five goals. Wood also has 11 assists.
For the Titans, senior forward Stacey Fox leads the team with seven goals and two assists for a total of 16 points. More importantly though, Fox scores when it counts; she has three game-winning goals.
Senior forward Ann Marie Tangorra follows closely behind her with six goals and three assists. Tangorra has two assists in the last road trip. Freshman forward Christina Burkenroad, the only freshman in the top offensive stats, she has five goals and two assists.
Junior goalkeeper Lindsey Maricic has been stellar between the pipes for the Titans. Her superb 1.00 goals against average is third in the Big West Conference. The Alta Loma native posted five shutouts this season bringing her career total to 11. She is fifth in the league with a 0.772 save percentage.
Hopefully, CSUF’s offensive threats and goalkeeping phenom will lead the Titans to victory in Thursday’s game.
For more information about women’s soccer, visit FullertonTitans.com. For more information about the Big West Women’s Soccer tournament, visit BigWest.org.
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