SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team returns to Harder Stadium for their final home matches of the regular season this week, hosting CSUN on Wednesday night and Cal State Fullerton for Senior Night on Saturday. The Gauchos come into the week riding a nine-game home unbeaten streak which dates back to last season's Senior Night.
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH
Kickoff for both of Santa Barbara's matches this week is set for 7 p.m., and both matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com. On Saturday, the Gauchos will celebrate their graduating seniors prior to kickoff.
 
POSTSEASON POSSIBILITIES
If everything goes Santa Barbara's way this week, the Gauchos could clinch The Big West Regular Season Championship as early as Saturday. The Blue and Gold will need help elsewhere, but wins in both of this week's game would put them in a great position regardless. The Gauchos come into the week tied with Cal State Bakersfield and Cal Poly for first place on 11 points, with UC San Diego, Sacramento State and UC Irvine all tied on nine points. If Santa Barbara goes 2-0 on the week while the Roadrunners and Mustangs lose at least once and the other three each drop any points, the Gauchos will clinch a share of the regular season crown. Santa Barbara would secure the No. 1 seed outright if they go 2-0 while Cal State Bakersfield and Cal Poly each fail to win both of their matches.
 
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
Not a player but certainly a contributor to the Gauchos' success under Head Coach Tim Vom Steeg is Harder Stadium, a ground which Vom Steeg's squad has turned into a fortress under his leadership. Over the last 25 years, the Gauchos are 183-54-34, having gone undefeated in a season at Harder Stadium twice, most recently in 2018.
 
Alexis Ledoux has been a star for the Gauchos this season regardless of venue, but the Frenchman has been nothing short of an unstoppable force at home. His 12 goals and 27 total points rank third and fourth nationally, but if you counted only his home goals (nine) and points (20), he would still rank 17^th and 24^th. Last season, he scored the game-tying goal at CSUN.
 
Calle Mollerberg is set to return for the Gauchos on Wednesday night after he missed Saturday's match at Sacramento State due to yellow card accumulation. Prior to that absence, the redshirt freshman from Sweden had played in every game as a crucial piece of the Santa Barbara defense. Only four Gauchos, one of them being goalkeeper David Mitzner, has played more minutes than Mollerberg this season.
 
SCOUTING THE MATADORS
CSUN (2-7-5, 0-4-2 Big West) sits in last place in The Big West, still looking for a first conference win of the season after being shut out in both of their matches last week, including a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Sacramento State. The Matadors have not won a game since Sept. 22 and have not won on the road since their upset of then-No. 11 LMU on the season's opening weekend back in August.
 
In attack, Big West Preseason Coaches' Team selection Marley Edwards has been limited to just two goals and two assists on the season, last appearing on the scoresheet against UC Davis on Oct. 9. No Matador has managed more than two assists on the season, with Michael Blevins and Jorge Solorzano the only players with more goals with three each. Blevins last scored in the conference opener on Oct. 2, while Solorzano last scored on Oct. 9.
 
The Matadors started a new goalkeeper in their last match, giving sophomore Dorian Drucks the assignment after he played the second half of that 5-0 loss at Sacramento State on Wednesday. Merrick Cook had been the Matadors' first-choice netminder up until last week; he made a career-high six saves when he faced the Gauchos in 2023.
 
SCOUTING THE TITANS
Cal State Fullerton (6-5-5, 2-2-2 Big West) entered 2024 as the defending Big West Regular Season Champions but have been inconsistent this year, posting some equally surprising wins and losses. They upset both then-No. 6 UCLA and now-No. 8 San Diego on the road, but failed to defeat Gonzaga and Grand Canyon, neither of whom are over .500 on the season. In conference play, the Titans have suffered defeats to UC Davis on the road and, most recently, Cal Poly at home. They will host a white-hot Sacramento State team before facing the Gauchos.
 
Those inconsistent results have not been due to a lack of offense though, as Fullerton has scored more goals than all but six teams in the country this year (32). Roberto Ordonez is the team's leader in both goals and assists, with six and seven, giving him the 28^th-most total points in all of Division I. Erick Serrano ranks 78^th nationally in points, thanks in large part to his six assists.
 
The issue for the Titans is that they have conceded nearly as many goals as they have scored this year, letting in 29 and owning a team goals-against average of 1.813 to rank well outside of the top 150 in the country. Brandon Limes has spent every minute of conference play in goal for the Titans and has a 1.50 goals-against average in those conference contests.
 
UP NEXT
UC Santa Barbara will play the regular season finale on the road at UC Riverside on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ with live stats available through ucsbgauchos.com.