SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — There is no place like home for the UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team, especially when it is time to kick off conference play. Under head coach Tim Vom Steeg, the Gauchos are a perfect 13-0 when hosting their conference opener, which they will do for the 14^th time in his tenure on Wednesday night, welcoming Sacramento State to Harder Stadium. The Gauchos are also a perfect 3-0 against Saturday's visitors, the Utah Valley Wolverines, who come to Harder Stadium as a conference foe for the first time ever. The Wolverines enter the week ranked 24^th in the nation and have not lost any of their six contests this season.
 
PROMOTIONS
On Wednesday night, UC Santa Barbara will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Night as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The Gauchos invite all fans to join in the festive mood with a maracas giveaway at Wednesday's game. Wednesday is also Elementary School Night, with Santa Barbara welcoming students and families from local elementary schools to the match through the Gauchos Give initiative.
 
The celebrations continue on Saturday night, which is both Santa Barbara Soccer Club Night and AYSO Parade Night. The Gauchos look forward to once again welcoming SBSC's players and families to the match. At halftime, AYSO squads will show off their team pride in a parade on the pitch, with prizes being awarded to the teams with the best and most creative banners. To sign your team up for the AYSO parade, click here.
 
TICKETS
Tickets for this week's matches and all of UC Santa Barbara's home fixtures are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets. All UCSB students get into every home Gaucho game for free with their valid Access ID card.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara will look to make good use of their home-field advantage — the Gauchos have won 73.1 percent of home matches under Vom Steeg and have earned a result (win or draw) in 80.1 percent — to right the ship after back-to-back defeats. Peleg Brown continued his triumphant return from injury last week, putting the ball in the back of the net twice against Oregon State (though only one counted) and firing home the cross that Cal Poly turned into its own net on Sunday, and his Gaucho teammates have been on the kind of form that will make Santa Barbara a formidable opponent once they re-find it. After all, Brown's main contribution to the attack has been assists; his four lead the squad and the entire Big West.
 
With creators beyond just Brown and plenty of willing strikers to feed the ball too, the Gauchos remain one of the highest-volume shooting teams in the country, averaging 16 attempts per game. Leading goal-scorer Steinar Bjornsson is heavily responsible for that figure, averaging 3.89 attempts per game by himself. Sacramento State transfer Donovan Sessoms is also among the top 50 Division-I players in that category with 2.89 attempts per contest, and his two goals and three assists put him second on the team in total points behind only Bjornsson.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Sacramento State is in its first year as a full member of The Big West but has been an affiliate member for men's soccer since 2012 and is quite familiar with the Gauchos. Santa Barbara has a 13-3-3 record against the Hornets in that span, including an unbeaten 8-0-2 record at Harder Stadium. Sacramento State makes the trip south with a 3-5 record, though they are riding a two-game win streak after taking down Pacific and UC Riverside in a pair of goal-filled affairs, 4-2 and 3-1 respectively. The Hornets also earned a win over arch-rivals UC Davis on opening weekend, but have losses to the same Grand Canyon, San Jose State and San Diego State squads that the Gauchos beat earlier this season. Filling the hole left in attack by now-Santa Barbara striker Sessoms are a trio of Hornets: two-time Big West Player of the Week Zac Giles, current Big West Player of the Week Hiroshi Yang and a man sure to have his eyes on a Big West Player of the Week award for himself, Sean Battistessa. Between the three of them, they account for 10 of the Hornets' 12 goals and six of their 12 assists on the season.
 
No. 24 Utah Valley is one of just seven unbeaten teams remaining in Division I soccer, though it has played the fewest matches of that group, at just six. The Wolverines' marquee result came on the road at Marshall, where they earned a 2-1 win. Since then, they had to settle for a draw with rivals Utah Tech on the road, their second draw in the just three matches they have played since the calendar turned to September. Utah Valley will host UC Irvine in its first-ever Big West match on Wednesday night before coming to visit the Gauchos. Like Santa Barbara, Utah Valley's name bespeckles this year's list of Big West Players of the Week. Senior forward Nil Grau was named The Big West Offensive Player of the Week on Aug. 31 and is tied for the team lead with two goals but has not played since Sept. 3. Fellow Spanish senior Jose Luis Martin Montealegre is the other two-goal scorer on the squad, while senior defender Toke Amtrup and rookie midfielder Luca Wingaa Laursen (both Danes) are the Wolverines' other two Big West Players of the Week, defensive and rookie, respectively.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff in both matches is set for 7 p.m. from Harder Stadium. Both matches will also be streamed live on ESPN+ and have live stats and play-by-play updates available through ucsbgauchos.com.