NORTHRIDGE – CSUN opens the Big West Conference portion of the softball season this weekend when the Matadors host UC Davis.

Friday will feature a single game that will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday’s doubleheader gets underway at 1 p.m. Brandon Marcus will have an audio call on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health for each of the three games against UC Davis. Saturday’s opener will feature a CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health video stream. Live stats are scheduled for each of the games this week. All links can be found on GoMatadors.com on the softball page.

On Friday, admission is free for both the baseball and softball games on the CSUN campus. Saturday’s doubleheader is Breast Cancer Awareness day. The first 100 fans through the doors will receive a “Fight Like a Matador T-shirt”. The first 100 fans through the doors will also receive free CSUN Eye Stickers.

UC Davis opens Big West play with an 18-11 overall record. The Aggies have been off since Mar. 16-18 when UCD went 3-1 at the NorCal Challenge. Alyse Rojas is seventh in the Big West in hitting (.392). She is tied for the team lead in RBI with Ashley Lotosynski.

Brooke Yanez leads the conference in ERA (1.32) and is second in strikeouts (130). Her strikeout total is the 10th best in Division I while her ERA is 44th in D-1. She is fourth in the league in wins with 11 which is the 36th highest in Division I. This will be the 50th and 51st meetings between CSUN and UC Davis with the Matadors leading the all-time series 34-15.

CSUN shortstop Savannah Horvath earned her third career Big West Softball Field Player of the Week award Mar. 26. Horvath led CSUN to a 3-0 mark at the Matador Classic last week. The Las Vegas native belted her Big West-leading 11th home run of the season in a 6-1 victory over Georgia Tech Mar. 23. That home run was the 46th of her career, tying Scia Maumausolo (1993-96) for No. 1 in Matador history. Horvath is now third in Big West history, and just seven away from tying Darian Tautalafua of Long Beach State’s (53, 2013-16) record.

Horvath hit .400 (6-for-15) for the week, tallying a hit in all four games as the Matadors posted a 3-1 record. She accounted for nearly half of CSUN’s 23 runs for the week, scoring four times and driving in seven more. She had three RBI in back-to-back games against Georgia Tech and Pacific. She finished 2-for-4 with a run scored in the 8-5 win over the Tigers.

Horvath also walked and stole a base in the first of two meetings against Pacific, an 8-2 win. She had an on-base percentage of .438 and slugged .600 for the week. Horvath was also named College Sports Madness Big West Player of the Week for her efforts.

CSUN has played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the Big West. According to the RPI released by the NCAA on Mar. 26, the Matadors have played eight of the top 25 teams in term of RPI in Division I including No. 2 Oregon and will be playing No. 3 UCLA Apr. 3.

In the current USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll that was released this week, CSUN has played nine of the top 25 teams. In the current ESPN/USA Softball Top 25, the Matadors have played eight of the top 25 teams.