No Berth in Soccer for Titans

Cal State Fullerton, despite a 14-5 record, did not receive one of 16 at-large berths in the 32-team NCAA men’s soccer tournament when the field was announced Monday night.

“We have no one to blame but ourselves,” Titan Coach Al Mistri said. “We didn’t win our way into the tournament. I’m disappointed for our seniors, but we played some of the best soccer we’ve ever played at times this season.”

UCLA (16-2) is one three Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams in the field and will host San Diego (14-3) at 1 Sunday.

Washington (14-4-2) won the MPSF title with a victory over UCLA, the Pacific Division champion, then earned a spot in the tournament by defeating Oral Roberts in a play-in match. Stanford (12-4-2), another Mountain Division team, also received an at-large berth.

Vermont Athletic Director Richard Farnham, a spokesman for the NCAA selection committee, said Fullerton was among several teams strongly considered but not chosen. He said the strength of Fullerton’s schedule was a factor.

“My staff and I spent part of this past week looking at the field,” Mistri said, “and the only thing we agreed on was that it was extremely difficult to make the [at-large] selections. But from a strength-of-schedule standpoint, we have no choice but to play the teams in our division of the conference.”

The Titans, however, were upset in one of those games by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 3-2.

Fullerton still had a chance to share the Pacific Division title with a victory at UCLA, but the Bruins won, 2-1.

“It’s disappointing,” Titan senior midfielder Antonio Martinez said. “We thought we were in the tournament. We thought we were ahead of both Portland and Stanford, but they got in.”