2014 was a special year for Sacramento State’s Men’s Soccer team: it was the first time that they qualified for the Big West Tournament since joining the conference in 2012. Their qualification for the tournament defied preseason expectations, when the annual Big West Preseason Coach’s Poll chose them to come in last place, with only 9 points. For his role in taking the predicted basement dwellers to the postseason tournament, long serving Sac State Head Coach Michael Linenberger won the Big West Coach of the Year Award.

This season the Hornets once again find themselves predicted to be dead last in the Big West Preseason Coach’s Poll. This time around, they are predicted to get a whole 2 additional points, finishing with a total of 11. Needless to say, this assessment of Sac State’s Preseason weakness is not shared by Coach Michael Linenberger or his team.

“Our goal this year is to qualify for the tournament again, but now be a factor in the tournament,” said Linenberger, now entering his 27th year leading the Hornets. “Not just ‘Hey, we played in our first game and we’re happy to be there,’ but let’s be a factor. Let’s make a run.”

Although Linenberger has bigger goals than a basement finish, he is not particularly surprised with the results of the poll. “It wasn’t unexpected, we’re still the newcomers,” he said. “Although we made the conference tournament last year, we got knocked out in the first round. We haven’t really made a statement yet.”

In order to make that statement, Linenberger and the Hornets will have to make due without their now-graduated Seniors, including leading goalscorer Chimdum Mez, who was drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes, but spent 2014 with the PDL’s Kitsap Pumas after not winning a contract with the Quakes. Mez contributed 7 of the team’s 18 goals last season, 5 more than the second highest goalscorer.

On losing Mez and the other Seniors, Linenberger said “You always miss your seniors. Chimdum obviously had a fabulous year last year, he carried us on his shoulders in many games and was by far the most dangerous attacking player. It’s hard to replace that.”

Although losing Mez and the other Seniors is difficult, Linenberger is still positive about the team’s outlook going forward, saying “We expect to be overall a better soccer playing team this year. We expect to finish with a better overall record, we expect to finish a little bit higher in the conference and, like I said, to go a little further in the conference tournament.”

Coach Linenberger is also positive about the prospect of building up the team’s foundation of young, but experienced players. “We were relatively young last year, with 18 Freshman and Sophomores in the group. This year I think overall we’re slightly more veteran, with now about 18 Sophomores and Juniors.” With only 4 Seniors in the team this season, those Sophomores and Juniors will need to show well and show the benefits of their experience in a young team in 2014.

One of those Sophomores is Cylus Sandoval, a forward from Novato, California. As a Freshman in 2014, Sandoval appeared in all 20 of the Hornets’s matches, racking up 2 goals and 2 assists in the process. During the summer offseason, Sandoval played for FC Tucson in the PDL, helping them get all the way to the Western Conference Championship match, where they lost to Seattle Sounders U-23s.

When asked about how Sandoval has changed as a player as a result of his PDL experience, Coach Linenberger said “We’ve already seen a change in him in the short time we’ve been together here… He still needs to get better [on the defensive side of the ball], but for sure he’s improved and he’s matured.”

That improvement already seems to be paying off for the Hornets. Although the team have lost both of their games so far this season, Sandoval scored his first goal of the season against Tulsa over the weekend.

Another important player for Sac State’s 2015 campaign is defender and Sacramento native, Andrew Gosselin. Now a Junior, Gosselin has been an important part to the Hornet defense since he was a Freshman. As one of the more experienced players on the team, Gosselin’s defensive contributions will be especially important as the Hornets try to make it back to the Big West Tournament.

The Hornets currently sit with a 0-2-0 record after a pair of tough away games to open the season. They travel to face San Jose State on Friday before coming back home to face CSU Bakersfield in their first home game of the season.

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