Northridge, CA–The UC Riverside Softball Team heads west for a three-game set against CSUN in Big West Conference play this weekend.
Saturday's series-opening double header begins at 1 pm PT, as does Sunday's series finale.
The Highlanders (23-20, 5-7) are coming off their first conference series victory this season, as they took two of three from visiting UC Davis last weekend.
Tayler Misfeldt continues to impress in the circle. The junior from Tracy, CA tossed a complete-game shutout in a 5-0 game two victory against the Aggies. She has a team-leading 11 wins, and 68 strikeouts on th season, while posting a 2.79 ERA over 108 innings. Midfeldt has been even more unhittable of late, posting a 1.12 ERA over her last 56.1 innings.
Rebecca Faulkner has fueled the offense of late, going nine for 14 in five games last week with five RBIs. That raised her average on the year from .357 to .452. Faulkner has not played in enough games this season to qualify for the Big West leader board.
Anessa Cepeda was also a key contributor on offense against the Aggies, driving in four, scoring three times, and doubling twice. Jenna Curtan leads the Big West with four triples, and ranks third with a .370 batting average.
UC Riverside is tied for the league lead with Long Beach State and Cal Poly with a .964 fielding percentage. The Highlanders' .63 double plays turned per contest ranks third in the country.
CSUN (27-17, 7-5) boasts the top offense in the Big West, leading the conference in runs per game (4.88) home runs (43), RBIs (198) and slugging percentage (.472), while ranking second in batting average and on base percentage. In fact, the Matadors have as many home runs on the season as UC Riverside, Long Beach State, UC Davis and Cal Poly combined.
Taylor Glover leads the Big West with a .434 batting average, and has driven in a league-best 35 runs. She is also second in the conference in on base percentage (.446), third in slugging percentage (.650), and third in stolen bases (21).
Katie Hooper and Savannah Horvath provide additional power for the Matadors as the duo are slugging .650 and 628 respectively on the year. Jessica Alexander's 34 RBIs this season are second in the league, and she is tied with Horvath for third in the Big West in home runs with eight.
The Matadors have given the ball to Daphne Pofek and Taylor Troost the majority of the season. Pofek is 13-7 with 65 strikeouts in 119 innings, and Troost is 10-6 with 51 batters fanned. They each have a 2.29 ERA and have walked 27.
UC Riverside is 5-40 all-time versus CSUN, and looks to snap a 12-game losing streak to the Matadors. The Highlanders were outscored 16-3 in last year's sweep in Riverside.
