With their first conference game on the horizon, reigning Big Sky champions Sacramento State women’s soccer had one final test against Causeway Classic rivals UC Davis at their very own Hornet Field.

The Hornets carried over the same struggles from their previous match against UC Santa Barbara into this game against the Aggies, that being the ability to get their attack going throughout the match.The Aggies held the Hornets to just one shot the entire first half.

“We have to do a better job at communicating and coordinating our different runs and our communication on offense,” junior forward Tea Reyes said. “I know we’re going to be working on it in the next couple of days.”

Coming into the second half, the Hornets looked to get things going attack-wise and strike a blow to their Causeway rivals. The first blow came just six minutes into the second half, but it was the Aggies that struck first and not the Hornets.

Driving down Sac State’s defense on the right hand side, Davis redshirt freshman forward Lakelee Perkins decided to test the Sac State goalkeeper while being marked by two Sac State defenders outside the box.

The shot from Perkins sent the ball bouncing off the crossbar and nestling into the bottom left corner of the net, resulting in an opening goal for the Aggies in the 50th minute.

Heading down the right hand side in the early stages of the 2nd half, redshirt freshamn forward Lakelee Perkins shot from outside the box hits the crossbar and finds the bottom left corner of the Sac State goal.
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— Elisha K Chandra (@ElishaChandra_) September 20, 2025

“We let them have too much of the ball, and we gave them too much confidence on the ball,” Sac State head coach Randy Dedini said. “We were just on our heels, and I don’t know why we’re like that.”

After the goal, the Hornets started to threaten the Aggies more than they did previously.

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Moving past the Davis left-hand side, freshman defender Aryana Martinez found Reyes in the 52nd minute. Reyes turned her body towards the ball and took a shot with her left foot, which sent the keeper the wrong way and the ball into the bottom right corner.

A whistle was blown instantly after the goal to signal that Reyes was offside, derailing both fans’ and players’ hopes of a Sac State equaliser. The Hornets had a couple more chances after, but none were as promising as the offside goal.

After the offside scare, Davis took control of the game. In search of their second win of the season, the Aggies were on the hunt for a second goal to destroy any hopes for a Sac State comeback.

As the game was winding down with eight minutes left, Davis redshirt senior forward Sarah Canavan played a ball into the heart of the Sac State defense. The ball was miscleared by Sac State and fell into the path of Davis redshirt senior forward Genaviere Fontes.

Fontes was then confronted and rushed at by redshirt junior goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier inside the box. Fontes moved the ball past Palmatier and tapped the ball into the empty Sac State goal, extending the lead to 2-0 for the Aggies in the 81st minute.

Taking advantage of a Sac State defense unable to clear the ball, redshirt senior forward Genaviere Fontes gets past redshirt junior goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier and finds a open Sac State net.
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— Elisha K Chandra (@ElishaChandra_) September 20, 2025

“It’s just communication – just staying on the same page as each other, communicating through everything,” sophomore defender Jaety Mandaquit said. “Once we fix those, I think we’ll have a better chance and prevent those goals from happening.”

After time ran out for the Hornets, a defeat to their Causeway rivals at home gave the Hornets their sixth loss of the season. The 2-0 defeat brings the Hornets to a two-game losing streak just before the Big Sky Conference starts.

“This needs to be a valuable lesson that you can’t look at some team’s record and assume that they’re not going to be a good team,” Dedini said. ”There’s no weak teams in Division I soccer.”

The defeat to Davis drops the Hornets’ record to 4-6 on the season. The Hornets had a total of seven shots in this game but conceded double the amount to the Aggies.

“I thought we gave them 45 minutes, and it’s hard to win a game in 45 minutes,” Dedini said. “I don’t think we played well, and we’re going to need to be better going forward.”

Sac State will start their Big Sky campaign on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. as they travel away from home to take on Northern Colorado.