The Sacramento State men?s soccer team walked into Sunday?s game against California State University, San Diego, with two losses earlier in the week, and left as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season champions with a final record of 5-8-4 and 4-1-2 in conference.

The Hornets? 3-1 victory tasted sweet after Friday?s 3-1 loss against University of California, Berkeley. Sac State also fell victim to Santa Clara Univeristy, 1-0, in a make-up game last Tuesday.

“We had to take a step back and evaluate what was happening,” Linenberger said. “It?s not easy to change things around 180 degrees.”

Sunday?s game started out well matched on the field against San Diego State. Sac State senior Vjeko Odich was able to capitalize on an assist provided by sophomore Sam Sneed to get the lead for the first half in the 34th minute.

“It feels great,” Odich said. “It was the right time to get it.”

The second half proved to be as fruitful for the Hornets, as sophomore Dave Fraser and senior Sean Luigs worked together for the goals. Fraser made the score 2-0 when Luigs passed the ball around Aztec goalkeeper Tim Edwards in the 62nd minute.

“We just take it one game at a time,” Fraser said.

San Diego answered back 10 minutes later when the Sac State defense broke down and Aztec Eric Wohl slid into the pass by teammate Kevin Sapanli, pushing the ball past Hornet senior goalkeeper Chris Haustein.

Sac State wasn?t about to be outdone, however. Again, Luigs and Fraser became the dangerous duo, as Luigs gave Fraser the opportunity to go one-on-one with Edwards to put the contest out of reach at 3-1 in the 81st minute of play. Fraser is now tied with Luigs with seven goals on the season.

The Hornets didn?t stop there. In the last six minutes of the game, Sac State continued to take control with shots by Joel Rodriguez, Nick Whittaker and Luigs.

“Yesterday, we had a little bit of a breakdown,” Sac State assistant head coach Cesar Plasencia said. “Today we had a breakthrough.”

Sac State now goes on to a knockout tournament at California State University, Fresno. The Hornets are the No. 1 seeded team and will play the University of New Mexico Thursday. If victory is the result, the Hornets will go on to play on Friday and then Sunday if the semifinals profit a win.

“Every game down there is going to be a dogfight,” Linenberger said.

Plasencia, however, looks forward to playing the tournament on the road.

“Our guys respond a little better on the road,” Plasencia said. “We are a much better team away from home.”

Sunday was also Senior Day for the soccer teams, as the men?s team gave tribute to the eight seniors on the team: Jason Gantt, Danny Gehm, Andy Hashimoto, Haustein, Luigs, Leo Marin, Erik Ocampo and Odich.

“We are losing some important seniors, and we?re going to miss them,” Linenberger said. “We?re losing both goalkeepers and a good core group.”