ARCATA — Still looking for its first victory of the 2012 season, Humboldt State will have to battle against two tough California Collegiate Athletic Association teams over the weekend. The Jacks will face Cal State Stanislaus, a team receiving votes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Top 25 rankings, on Friday, Sept. 21, at 12:30 p.m., and on Sunday, Sept. 23, HSU challenges No. 13-ranked Chico State with an 11:30 a.m. kickoff time.

"This weekend is, obviously, going to be a huge, huge test for us," said head coach CJ Johnson. "It's going to be hard to prepare for. If we would have had five games under our belt, we would have had time to fix some things really before facing some of the best teams in the conference."

Head-to-Head

Humboldt State trails to both Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State in the all-time series, but will look to close the gap over the weekend. Last year, the Jacks fell 1-3 and 0-5 to the Warriors to put the series at 9-5-0 in favor of CSUS. The Wildcats also swept the series last season, beating the Jacks 2-0 and 1-0 to put the overall series at 12-7-5 in favor of Chico State.

Multimedia

Fans can follow the action of the games via Live Stats at http://www.sidearmstats.com/humboldt/wsoc/scoreboard.aspx. A live video stream will also be featured at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-state-athletics.

Warrior Notes

Cal State Stanislaus enters Friday's match with a string of three wins and an overall record of 5-1 (3-1 in the CCAA), trying to break back into the Top 25 after previously holding the No. 13 spot. The Warriors beat Cal State East Bay 1-0 and Cal State Monterey Bay 4-0 over the weekend. ... CSUS' only loss came in the Warriors' home opener against Cal State Dominguez Hills with a 3-1 final result. ... As a team, the Warriors have outshot their opponents 102-to-39, scoring nine goals in the first half and seven in the second. ... Karenee Demery leads the Warriors with six goals, including three game-winners, and three assists. Allie Dugan has scored three goals and assisted one to put her second in points, with Alexia Poon and Katelyn Nebesnick tied for third, each with two goals and two assists. ... Goalkeeper Millie Brown has kept four clean sheets and boasts a 0.67 goals against average with a .818 save percentage.

Wildcat Notes

No. 14-ranked Chico State will face Sonoma State Friday before its contest against HSU, entering the weekend with a 4-2 overall record and 2-2 conference record. The Wildcats lost 1-2 in overtime to Cal State Monterey Bay last Friday, but were able to rebound to beat CSUEB 1-0 on Sunday. ... Chico State outshoots its opponents 94-to-54, keeping a consistent flow of shots in both the first and second halves. ... Scottie Walker leads the 'Cats with two goals, one of which is a game-winner, and one assists. Walker gets dangerous looks on goal, keeping more than half her shots on target for a .545 shots-on-goal percentage. ... Gail Bassett also has scored two goals on the season, including a game-winning shot, off just four shots for a .500 shooting percentage. ... Jennie Barto and Carly Singer also get into the attack, getting two and three assists, respectively. ... Goalkeeper Brianna Furner has logged 546:34 minutes and posts a 0.99 GAA with four shutouts and a .714 save percentage.

Lumberjack Notes

Humboldt State comes off an unlucky showing in its 2012 debut weekend. Despite outshooting Cal Poly Pomona 22-to-11 on Friday afternoon, the Jacks lost 0-2 to the Broncos. On Sunday, HSU took a first-half 2-0 lead, but three late goals cost the Jacks a 2-3 loss to start the season 0-2 overall and in conference. ... The Jacks have outshot their opponents in the first half 18-to-12, but will need to carry that over into the second half in hopes of grabbing a victory. Coming out of halftime, HSU has taken 14 shots, but given up 19 to its opponents, four of which have found the back of the net. ... Carly Kolpin scored the first goal of the season for the Jacks against the Gators off an assist from Tamra James, who has also been getting into the attack to register four shots. ... Head coach CJ Johnson has been pleased with Lizzie Mitchell's creativity and play, which resulted in an assist off Maddi Null's first collegiate goal. ... Colette Behen and Savannah Havranek are thirsty for goals, firing off nine and five shots, respectively. ... Goalkeeper Jennie Paugh suffered an elbow injury in the 44th minute of Sunday's contest against San Francisco State, giving Kelly Lukas her first collegiate appearance. In Paugh's 133:50 minutes of action, she boasts a .778 save percentage with a 1.34 goals against average. Lukas made two saves in 46:10 minutes of play, but gave up three goals to the Gators.

Injury Report

Paugh's elbow injury leaves her sidelined as she recovers from the injury, with her availability for the rest of the season still up in the air. Elle Reid suffered an ankle injury in Friday's contest against CPP, leaving her on the bench against the Gators and questionable for the upcoming weekend. Johnson hopes Chelsea LaRue, who had to sit the first two games out due to a head injury, will be cleared to play against the Warriors and Wildcats to bring some stability and composure to his back line. Allie Swanson, also with a head injury, was able to get some playing time in against SF State, but Johnson hopes to see her less hesitant and timid at center back as she gains more confidence in her recovery.

Johnson's Insights...

...on what to work on

"We now know what we're up against as far as things we need to work on, a lot of which is defensively. Last year, there was a lot of focus on both defending in our 18-yard box and offensively we didn't have great production. It's definitely flipped. We've had 32 shots already, so that progression is great to see. ... Defensively speaking, I think one of the main things is learning how and when to step to the open players sitting in between the back line and midfielders. ... A big part of our issues is that we really need to figure out how to finish a game. We need to dig deep and really finish out the last 20-25 minutes of the game. ... I think giving up the second goal in Friday's match kind of took the wind out of our sails, but we still weren't patient. We didn't play our game. ... Sunday's game, we're up two goals and we didn't finish out the game. We stopped playing our game. I think some of that could be due to the fact that we rarely had a lead to protect last year. We kind of found ourselves in a new situation to learn from. ... Some of this week is going to be about mental toughness and figuring out how to get them to finish the game and not rush things but be patient and continue to play our style."

...on Cal State Stanislaus

"CSUS will be very athletic and has some quickness that concerns me. They are very organized, defend well and get stuck in."

...on Chico State

"Chico State is a very physical team that's good at winning balls. The Wildcats do a good job dumping the ball in and locking it in against your defensive third so it'll come down to how we can combine out of the back with the midfielders to get out of pressure and look to counter attack."