THE SCHEDULE: San José State remains on the road to round out its three-match road trip, taking to Riverside to face California Baptist on Saturday afternoon. Kickoff is set for 3:00 p.m. at Lancer Soccer Field.
FOLLOW ALONG: Saturday's match will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network with Cullen Holt on the call. Live stats will be available and you can follow every San José State men's soccer game live on Twitter, @SanJoseStateMS.
SIMON SAYS: "We are still in a good position to make the conference tournament at the halfway point of WAC play," says head coach Simon Tobin. "We have a challenging few games ahead though. California Baptist has been very strong at its home field but this match is close to a must-win in terms of qualifying for postseason play."
FIRST TOUCHES:
- Seven different players (Angel Farias, Nicolas Brenes, Omar Lemus, Eduardo Buenfil, Suliman Khorami, Danny Sanchez, Rodolfo Castro) have scored a goal this season.
- Castro leads the team in goals (6), points (14), shots (34) and shots on goal (18) in 11 appearances.
- San José State's draw at Grand Canyon on Friday marked the first time the program has earned a result after falling behind twice since Oct. 29, 2017 (trailed Kansas City 1-0 and 2-1 before winning 4-3).
- Angel Farias' 84th minute goal against the Lopes was the first goal allowed by GCU at home in 351 days.
- The Spartans' 6-0 victory over Kansas City earlier in the month set a program record for margin of victory in a conference contest. Saturday's match at California Baptist will be just the second all-time meeting between the two programs.
- The team's 1-0 lead in its September 9 match against Saint Mary's marked the first time the Gaels had trailed in a match since Sept. 16, 2018 (0-1 at UC Riverside).
- Freshman David Sweeney leads the team with 32 saves in just seven appearances. His nine saves against CSU Bakersfield last month were a career high and the team's most in a match this season.
- Defender Omar Lemus tops the team with three assists heading into this week's play.
NATIONAL STATISTICS UPDATE:
- San José State ranks No. 13 nationally and third in the WAC in shot accuracy (.491), narrowly trailing national-leader Western Michigan (.591). Midfielder Nicolas Brenes is slotted at No. 14 in the country and second in the conference in the category with a .619 average.
- The Spartans are currently No. 49 nationally in saves per game at a clip of 4.30 per match. Freshman David Sweeney leads the club with 32 saves made in seven appearances.
CHECKING ON CALIFORNIA BAPTIST:
- Saturday's match will be just the second all-time meeting between San José State and California Baptist.
- The Spartans have played six matches in program history in the city of Riverside, earning a result in two of them.
- The Lancers hold a record of 3-8-2 (2-2-1 WAC) entering Saturday's match. The club last hit the pitch over the weekend at Utah Valley, falling 1-0 against the conference-leading Wolverines. The visit from SJSU will kickoff a three-match homestand for CBU.
- The Lancers finished the 2018 campaign with a 9-9-1 record.
TOBIN'S TEAM:
- 2019 marks the sixth season at the helm in San José for Tobin, who joined the Spartans after spending the previous 27 seasons as the head coach at CSU Bakersfield.
- Tobin is a native of London, England, graduating from Nonington College in 1983.
- His 338 career victories entering the 2019 campaign ranked No. 10 in all of Division I among active coaches.
- Postseason success has been a staple of Tobin's time in San José as the Spartans have made the Western Athletic Conference title match in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
- He has continued to turn out some of the top talent in the conference year in and year out, placing a total of 15 players on the All-Western Athletic Conference Team throughout his tenure.
THE STAFF:
- San José State's coaching staff features three men who each saw success in their collegiate playing days at universities throughout the state.
- Jonathan Lester is a Spartan alumnus and ranks No. 4 on the program's all time saves list with a dominant 225 in just three years.
- Jesus Sanchez played for Tobin at CSU Bakersfield, finishing his four seasons there with 16 goals and 27 assists while compiling a record of 40-22-15.
- Nic Ryan rounds out the staff as a volunteer assistant coach. He played collegiately at UC Santa Barbara, reaching the NCAA Tournament three times in four years with the Gauchos.
- Lester is in his third year on staff with the Spartans, while both Sanchez and Ryan came aboard prior to the start of the 2018 season.
FRESH FACES:
- San José State's 2019 roster features 12 newcomers, nine of which are freshmen.
- 10 of the 12 newcomers hail from California, bringing the team's total to 24 in-state products.
BETTER KNOW A SPARTAN:
- SJSU was one of five teams to receive a first-place vote in the WAC Preseason Poll. The defending WAC Championship runner-up finished sixth in the poll of the conference coaches.
- Tobin has taken the program to back-to-back WAC title match appearances. This year's conference tournament is scheduled for November 13-17 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- The San José State squad features a trio of European players in the form of freshman Kasper Poulsgaard, sophomore Finlay Wood and junior Max Allen. Poulsgaard hails from Denmark, while Wood and Allen come to San José from Wales and England, respectively.
- The Spartans will face five NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago in 2019, with both Saint Mary's (September 9) and Air Force (October 27) coming to the Spartan Soccer Complex.
- Senior Jeff Dukes has gotten the job done both on the field and in the classroom, earning Academic All-WAC recognition last season. It was the second such award for Dukes in his collegiate career.
- SJSU prepared for the regular season with a pair of serviceable exhibition matches. The club played a 110-minute friendly at California before returning home and defeating Holy Cross.
ROAD WARRIORS:
- San José State will finish the regular season playing six of its final eight matches on the road, embarking on a pair of three-game road trips across five different states.
- The team has already played four road games this season, including matches at No. 1 Stanford and rival Santa Clara.
- The Spartans have impressed away from home recently, posting an 11-11-5 record in their last 27 matches played outside of the Spartan Soccer Complex.
THIS YEAR'S SLATE:
- The Spartans seven non-conference opponents represented three different conferences (Big West, WCC, Pac-12).
- Two of SJSU's matches this year (No. 1 Stanford, No. 8 Saint Mary's) came against opponents ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Poll.
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