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Part One – Early results foreshadowed historic season
Part Two – Non-conference slate preps Ags for Big West championship run
Part Three – Finding ways to win
 
 
By defeating Sacramento State in its regular season finale, men's soccer locked up the No. 1 seed in the league's postseason tournament, which meant two things:
 
- The path to a Big West Tournament championship, and the conference's 2019 NCAA Tournament automatic bid ran through Davis
- Teams had no choice than to face one of the stingiest defenses in the nation when they arrived at Aggie Soccer Field
 
What started in its season-opening road trip at Wisconsin and Marquette continued throughout the entire 2019 season when the Aggies collected one shutout after another as the regular season progressed.
 
Not only did the Aggies' 2019 roster possess numerous scoring threats, it also fielded the toughest defense in the league and one of the top units in the nation.
 
Entering the Big West Tournament, UC Davis allowed a Division I era-low 12 goals throughout 19 games. And as postseason play progressed, that total remained untouched, which played a crucial role in the Aggies winning their first Big West Tournament championship in program history.
 
In its tournament semifinal, the Ags faced a Cal State Fullerton team it defeated on the road just two weeks prior, on its own turf, in the waning moments of double overtime. Head coach Dwayne Shaffer knew his team would face a motivated squad looking to avenge that result and solve a near-impossible challenge: How does a team score against a defensive unit known for shutting out opponents on a consistent basis?
 
With a raucous crowd at Aggie Soccer Field supporting UC Davis, the Titans were unable to find the answer for that season-long question.
 
In that playoff semifinal, the Ags out-shot CSF by a 25-4 overall margin, recorded seven times as many shots on goal (14-2), and only needed to make two saves to win the game by a 2-0 score. With that result, UC Davis advanced to the Big West Tournament's title game for the third consecutive year and drew UC Santa Barbara as this year's opponent.
 
In front of a packed house, with additional fans soaking the action outside the facility once capacity was reached, this Aggie-Gaucho battle began like every other one in recent seasons. After an initial feeling-out period that featured a possession battle, this championship clash quickly turned into the game everyone expected — high-quality and physical soccer played by two nationally ranked teams.
 
Following a scoreless first half, Andy Velasquez broke through with the game's first goal, which allowed a capacity crowd to erupt and release a roar heard miles away from campus. That shot also forced the Gauchos to adjust their tactics and schemes on both ends of the field because UCSB's coaches knew that when UC Davis scored first, an Aggie victory eventually followed.
 
For the next 35 minutes, UC Santa Barbara's attackers struggled to break through the Great Wall of Davis, create a shooting lane or enjoy clean look at goal, let alone test Wallis Lapsley, the 2019 Big West Goalkeeper of the Year.
 
Velasquez gave the Aggies the one goal they needed, and the combined defensive efforts of starters Max Arfsten, Sean Cooper, Emmanuel Doherty, Marte Formico, Max Glasser, Jake Haupt, Nabi Kibunguchy, and reserves Ryan Dieter, Grant Fidler, Robert Mejia, Kaleb Schirmacher and Dylan Wood ensured the only dangerous scoring opportunities created that day would come from the Aggies.
 
When Kristian Heptner doubled his team's lead late in the game, a year's worth of hard work and sacrifice led to the Aggies officially punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
 
In front of a capacity crowd, and additional fans who celebrated outside Aggie Soccer Field's fences, UC Davis won its first double in program history with a playoff run that left no doubt that the Aggies cemented their place on college soccer's national map as one of the top programs in the nation — one of numerous topics covered in the final installment of men's soccer's 2019 season review.
 


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