Sacramento State women’s soccer (3-3-0) is back on the road prepared to visit Fresno Pacific (0-2-0) on Friday, Sept. 12.

For the Hornets this is only their second away game of the 2014 season. The women lost on the road against San Jose State, 1-0, earlier in the year.

The women will begin to play four of the next five games on the road, including the start of their conference games against Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.

“They [Fresno Pacific] have nothing to lose, I think they will be really pumped up for the game, it’s at home for them,” Sac State coach Randy Dedini said. “Division I opponent coming to their place and they will come out super excited and throw everything at us.”

For freshman forward Kylee Smith, this will only be her second collegiate road game and said she is looking forward to having a much better outcome this time around.

“We have been attacking at players in practice,” Smith said. “Always going forward with the ball instead of turning, being more confident, and shooting.”

The Hornet defense has only given up four goals in six games so far in the young season. Senior defender Kassi Anast believes that adding pressure early and often will create more turnovers.

“The back line is important in defense, but it comes from everyone when you defend all over the field,” Anast said. “One thing we really like to focus on is winning the ball back within three seconds after turning it over; pressure from all over the field is key.”

Last season the Hornets defeated the Sunbirds at home 1-0. Senior goalkeeper Kimberly Mata made two saves to preserve the victory for the Hornets. Sophomore midfielder Jennifer Lum scored the game’s lone goal.

Dedini believes that Fresno Pacific will once again be thrilled that they’re facing a Division I opponent such as Sac State.

“When we played them last year, they really bunkered in and they put everybody in their half of the field and made it difficult for us to get the goals,” Dedini said. “If they do that, we’ve talked about the different ways to beat a Pac-10 defense, so hopefully we can take what we’ve been teaching and bring it to the field, break them down, and score some goals.”

The Sunbirds have been shutout for both of their first two games of the season. They lost 5-0 at Cal State East Bay and lost 1-0 at home against UC Merced.

Fresno Pacific is a Division II team that is represented in the Pacific West Conference.