Titans Will Play Soccer at Indiana

The Cal State Fullerton men’s soccer team will be on the road for Sunday’s NCAA quarterfinal game against Indiana.

The 13th-ranked Titans have played two straight games at home, but now must face top-ranked Indiana on the Hoosiers’ home turf in Bloomington, Ind. Game time is 11 a.m. (PST).

“I’m sure they’re sitting there licking their chops about playing us on their home field,” Fullerton Coach Al Mistri said Monday. The Titans upset Indiana, 3-2, in late October in the MetLife tournament at UCLA. It was one of only two Indiana losses this season in 23 games.

Mistri and his players had held out hope for a third consecutive game at home, but after Indiana defeated Creighton, 1-0, Sunday, the decision was not unexpected. The Titans (14-6-2) defeated San Francisco, 1-0, Sunday in sudden-death overtime.

Last year, Fullerton won three straight games on the road to reach the final four in Davidson, N.C., before losing to South Carolina, 1-0, in the semifinals.

In another development Monday, Mistri said goalkeeper Mike Kornock has quit the team. Kornock had been the starting goalkeeper through much of the season before Justin Johnston replaced him. Kornock missed a practice before the first playoff games and was suspended indefinitely.

Bob Martin, West Coast regional chairman on the NCAA committee, said Indiana’s No. 1 seeding going into the playoffs was the deciding factor in the site selection.

“The criteria for choosing the playoff sites involve the quality of the facility and revenue potential, then the seedings of the teams involved,” said Martin, soccer coach at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. “Both Indiana and Fullerton have good facilities and have been drawing well, so Indiana’s seeding became the issue.”

Martin said the likelihood of more favorable weather at Fullerton was not a consideration.

“The only way the weather becomes a consideration is if the field is torn up to the point that it’s not a good playing site,” Martin said. “You can’t base a decision on what the weather may or may not be next weekend.”

A driving rainstorm, with high winds and lightning, forced a five-hour delay Sunday in the Indiana-Creighton game in Bloomington, Ind. The crowd was 769, although considerably more tickets were sold in advance for the game, an Indiana athletic department spokesman said.

Indiana drew 4,496 for its first-round game against Notre Dame in good weather conditions.

“I know it is a tough decision in a case such as this,” Mistri said. “But you always like to see a game like this played under the best possible weather conditions, and I think everyone would agree that there’s a better chance of it happening here than there at this time of the year.”

Temperatures have been in the 40s during the day in Bloomington in the past week. Fullerton Athletic Director John Easterbrook, who had hoped the school could be the host for the quarterfinal game, said he could appreciate the seeding being a factor. “That’s one of the reasons you try to do well in the regular season,” Easterbrook said. “But I’m pleased that our fans turned out well for the first two playoff games. That really helped us.”

The Titans drew 2,787 for their first-round game against San Diego and 2,651 for Sunday’s match.