The UC San Diego women’s soccer program begins the season this week with a pair of home matches against NCAA Division II West Region foes from the Pacific West Conference (PacWest). The Tritons will face Concordia University Irvine on Thursday night, Sept. 3, and crosstown rival Point Loma Nazarene University on Saturday, Sept. 5. Both contests are in primetime with 7 p.m. kickoffs at Triton Soccer Stadium. UCSD will play a total of six non-conference tilts among its 18-game regular-season schedule.
The Tritons went 9-6-3 overall and 6-3-2 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) a year ago, finding their stride down the stretch in finishing the regular season 5-0-1, with four of those matches away from home and allowing just a single goal, to gain a well-earned return trip to the CCAA Championship in sixth place in the standings. UCSD has only missed that event once, in 2013, since joining the league for the 2000 season. The Tritons own a record eight conference banners. They went 4-3-1 at home in 2014.
All regular-season home matches at Triton Soccer Stadium are free to attend. Parking permits are required, however, on weeknights on the UCSD campus. Parking permits can be purchased at machines situated at corners of either of the nearest parking lots, behind the spectator stand, as well as the Hopkins Parking Structure behind RIMAC. Parking is free on Saturday and Sunday. UCSD was picked to finish seventh in the 2015 CCAA race, as voted on in the preseason poll conducted by the league’s 13 head coaches and released on Aug. 27. The Tritons accumulated 93 points to sit just behind Cal State San Bernardino at 98 points. A total of five squads ahead of them garnered at least one first-place vote. Eighteenth-ranked reigning champion Cal State L.A. is favored to repeat, collecting 130 points from five first-place nods, with No. 10 Stanislaus State a close second at 128 points and four first-place votes, and No. 20 Cal Poly Pomona (112, one first-place vote) third. Sonoma State (109, two first-place votes) and Chico State (103, one first-place vote) followed.
