CSUN Seeks Big West Regular Season Title vs. Long Beach State

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Women's Soccer (8-4-6, 4-1-2 BWC) concludes the regular season this week focused on a Big West Conference title. The Matadors host Long Beach State on Thursday in a Senior Night match at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health with Jose Avalos and Eduard Cauich on the call. Prior to the match, the Matadors will honor their senior class in a special ceremony.

The Matadors head into their regular season finale with an opportunity to clinch a share of the Big West regular season championship. With a win over Long Beach State, the Matadors would secure their second-straight regular season title, and should UC Davis tie or lose one of its final games, CSUN would win the title outright.

CSUN leads the conference with 14 points followed closely by UC Irvine (4-2-1, 13 points), UC Davis (3-1-2, 11 points) and Cal State Fullerton (3-2-1, 10 points). UC Riverside (3-3) sits in fifth place with nine points with Long Beach State (2-3-1), Cal Poly (2-4-1) and UC Santa Barbara (2-4-1) tied for sixth with seven points apiece. Hawai'i (1-4-1) has four points heading into the week. The teams that finish in the top four in the conference will advance to next week's Big West Conference Tournament at Matador Soccer Field. The tournament semifinals will be played on Thursday, Nov. 2 and the championship match is set for Sunday, Nov. 5.

CSUN wrapped up its third-straight unbeaten week to move to the top of the conference standings. The Matadors defeated UC Irvine 1-0 on Thursday night before battling to an 0-0 draw at UC Davis on Sunday. Senior goalkeeper Jovani McCaskill collected her sixth and seventh shutouts of the season while Sydney Gilbert hit the back of the net in the victory over the Anteaters.

Both McCaskill and Gilbert took home the Big West's Defensive and Offensive Player of the Week awards respectively for their work in helping CSUN go unbeaten. McCaskill posted six saves for the week en route to earning her fourth career player of the week nod while Gilbert's game winner was her first career goal with the Matadors.

With her two shutouts, McCaskill broke the program's all-time career shutout record. Her 28 goals surpassed the previous record holder, CSUN assistant coach Cynthia Rosas who collected 27 shutouts from 2009-12. McCaskill is also the school's all-time single-season shutout leader after posting 14 last season.

Thursday's match represents the final regular season match for Matador seniors Cynthia Sanchez, Sylvia Trinh, Ariana Tran, Jenna Koziol and McCaskill. The group helped CSUN win its first ever Big West Conference regular season championship last season and advance to the Big West Tournament in 2014 and 2016.

Long Beach State leads the all-time series with the Matadors 13-8-2 and has won each of the last four decisions. Earlier this season, the Matadors fought the 49ers to a 1-1 draw in a non-conference match to start the season. Long Beach State knocked out the Matadors in last season's Big West Tournament semifinals by a 1-0 decision.

A Closer Look at Long Beach State
The 49ers improved to 8-6-2 on the season after defeating UC Riverside 3-0 last week. Long Beach State is three points away from the fourth and final Big West Tournament spot. After taking on CSUN, LBSU returns home to face UC Davis on Sunday. Senior Tori Bolden has four goals and three assists for a team-best 11 points this season. Freshman Rola Badawiya is tied for the team lead with four goals. Seeing the most action in net (844:59), junior Imani McDonald has amassed an 1.17 GAA with four shutouts.

CSUN Seeks Big West Regular Season Title vs. Long Beach State

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Players Mentioned

Sydney Gilbert

Jenna Koziol

Jovani McCaskill

Cynthia Sanchez

Ariana Tran

Sylvia Trinh