Coming off their best season in three years, CSUN women’s soccer team is preparing itself to face tough competition yet again during the upcoming 2005 season.

The team is scheduled to play 19 games, including seven at the Matador Soccer Field. The Matadors kicked off the regular season on Aug. 26 on the road with a game at UNLV, who owned a 2-1 series lead against the Matadors going into the game.

Following its season opener, the team is scheduled for three consecutive home games which started with Fresno State on Aug. 28.

Northridge is 5-4-1 in series openers, winning only three of their first 10 home-opening games. The Bulldogs are returning nine starters from last season including junior Cortney Sobrero, who led her team with 10 goals scored, earning All-WAC honors. The Matadors owned a 3-2 series lead over the Bulldogs prior to the game.

This Labor Day weekend, both Navy and Idaho State will come to CSUN. After that, the Matadors face a grueling travel schedule, with plans to open up the Big West Tournament at home against UC Irvine on Sept. 30.

Second-year head coach Terry Davila took a team that had won a combined seven games the last two seasons and produced a 12-6-1 team that set or tied several school records. Last season the women scored 30 goals, one shy of the all-time school record and finished in a tie for third place in league play at 6-3-0. They also earned a trip to the Big West Tournament.

This year, they are hoping to do even better under the careful guidance of Davila.

“Every game counts, and our goal is to win when we play,” Davila said.

Although the team was projected to finish fifth in the 2005 pre-season conference coaches poll, Davila said the Matadors are very confident they can exceed their expectations this year. “The team is much more experienced this year,” Davila said.

“The players are more familiar with each other, and we have players in our program that are very valuable to us,” he added.

Last year, CSUN was 12-6-1 overall, and 6-3 in conference. This year, the Matadors hope to improve their statistics with the addition of two new players, April Cline, a junior from Palmdale, and Sara Davis, a junior from San Clemente, who both signed contracts to play for CSUN in 2005.

With the recent exhibition game loss to USC on Aug. 20, the team has already started to experience a taste of the difficult competition that lies ahead.

Sanaz Bakhtiari can be reached at sanaz.bakhtiari.396@csun.edu