There came redemption in two sports, riding shotgun with continued excellence. Speaking of continued excellence, there was more of that sprinkled about as well.
When you look back on the 2023-24 Cal State Fullerton athletic season, you’ll find breakout performances interspersed with the arrival of new stars – interspersed with the return of names Titans’ sports fans recognize on sight.
Megan Delgadillo and Tegan Andrews, welcome back to prominence.
Roberto Ordonez, Davina Xanh, Abel Jordan, Josie Usereau, welcome to the big stage. One you illustrated wasn’t too big for you.
The Titans won conference titles in men’s soccer, women’s soccer and softball. They were runners-up in men’s golf and both indoor and outdoor men’s track and field. Individually, the haul was more impressive. Andrews (men’s golf), Jordan (men’s 100 meters), Trinity Barnett (women’s 100 meters), Alyssa Heinlein (women’s 400-meter hurdles) and the men’s 4-by-100-meter relay team all claimed conference titles.
And the CSF Dance Team returned to a familiar spot atop the pyramid, winning its UDA National Championship for the 18th time. It was the program’s second Division 1 Jazz title in three years.
There are moments worth revisiting. Moments like these from the just-concluded 2023-24 season.
Remarkable Roberto
Even before the rest of the Big West would learn, much to their detriment, CSF men’s soccer coach George Kuntz knew what kind of player Roberto Ordonez was. The quick feet, the instincts for goal, the vision, the soccer IQ. It was all there.
What wasn’t there before this year was his health. A mysterious back ailment kept Ordonez sidelined for the 2022 season. When he finally got healthy, even Kuntz was awe-struck.
“In the spring, he showed flashes of how good he could be. We knew he was excellent on set pieces: corners, free-kicks, dead balls. But his touch, his ability to hold the ball, his ability to possess the ball were things over and above anything that we thought he could do,” Kuntz said.
What Ordonez did in 2023 was lead the Big West with 28 points and 10 assists. His nine goals were second in the conference and those 10 assists placed him eighth in the nation. They also helped him become the first Titan in program history to earn Big West Offensive Player of the Year.
Meanwhile, he and teammate Erick Serrano – the Big West Midfielder of the Year – led the Titans to their first Big West regular-season title since 2017. Both were named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Far West Region Second Team.
Don’t forget us
While Ordonez was turning heads and defenders, the CSF women’s soccer team turned the screws for its 10th Big West reagular-season championship – a title that came with a screw-turning final day of the regular season.
CSF came into the season finale at Cal State Bakersfield one point behind Cal Poly (SLO). It needed a win and a Cal Poly draw or loss against UC San Diego. The Titans took care of the former, blasting CSUB, 4-0. UCSD took care of the latter, parlaying Alexis Nguyen’s goal in the 89th minute for a 1-0 shocker.
UC Irvine ended the Titans’ season in the conference tournament for the second consecutive year, snapping an impressive run-in that included a five-game winning streak and a nine-game unbeaten streak. And Coach Demian Brown, who signed a contract extension in February that keeps him at Titan Stadium through the 2026 season, welcomes back all but defenders Maddie Phantumabamrung and Jesslyn McCave.
Redemption song
CSF softball coach Kelly Ford normally is an open book about her team – except when you bring up the events of May 2023. Needing one victory in three games to capture the Big West Softball title, the Titans were swept by Long Beach State, which snatched and grabbed the crown from the Titans’ heads.
Ford graciously, but firmly, brushed aside all mentions of that event. If it was discussed, it was discussed internally as fuel for the Titans to rectify that oversight. Which they did in May 2024.
Fullerton took two of three from its rivals the final weekend of the season, beating Long Beach, 10-4, in a season finale that illustrated revenge is truly a dish best tasted cold. The Titans went 39-19 overall and 22-5 in conference, including 11-1 at home. They swept four of their nine home conference series.
The momentum carried into the NCAA Stanford Regional, where third-seeded CSUF overcame an opening loss to Mississippi State to win its next three games: over St. Mary’s, Mississippi State and host Stanford to force a second game in the double-elimination tournament. The Cardinal ended the streak with a 4-2 victory in the finale.
As expected, the Titans carried off a plethora of postseason honors. Haley Rainey was the Big West Pitcher of the Year for her conference-leading 17 wins, a 1.76 ERA and two no-hitters. Peyton Toto was named the Big West Co-Defensive Player of the Year, recording more than 300 putouts at shortstop and first base, to go with slashing .345/.396/.468.
And then, there was Megan Delgadillo, who returned from a season-ending knee injury in March of 2023 on her own redemption campaign. The Big West Field Player of the Year in 2022, Delgadillo picked up where she left off – and left everything behind. She batted a personal-best .417, slugged a season-best .515, went 44 for 46 on stolen base attempts and scored 49 runs. En route, the First Team All-Big West selection set program career records for runs (172) and hits (272). She broke the conference record for stolen bases when she swiped her 122nd base against Toledo, and now sits at 151.
Redemption song 2.0
When we last left Tegan Andrews, he redshirted the 2023 season battling injuries and his own head.
We pick him up now as the Big West Men’s Golfer of the Year after the senior won three events, finished with six top-10s and carted off the conference’s individual title. Andrews’ 14-under-par 202 in the conference tournament at La Quinta Country Club included a program-record-tying 63.
It also paced the Titans to a runner-up finish in the conference.
Break on through
Ordonez wasn’t close to being the only athlete to break out this season. In women’s golf, sophomore Davina Xanh became the program’s third Big West Golfer of the Year, placing in the top-10 in all 10 tournaments and finishing with the best scoring average (71.43) in program history.
Usereau, a freshman, became only the second Titan in program history to be named Big West Freshman of the Year. She was an all-conference first-team selection in singles and second team in doubles. In the fall, she was the singles runner-up at the Dennis Riza Classic and reached the quarterfinals of the ITA West Intercollegiate Championship.
Jordan, a sophomore from Madrid, Spain, missed qualifying for the NCAA National Championships by one spot, finishing 13th at the NCAA Regionals in the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.53 seconds that was 0.01 seconds from the 12th and final spot. Instead, Jordan will content himself with his Big West Men’s Track Athlete of the Year trophy, winning the conference 100 meters in a school-record 10.19 seconds and running the second leg on the conference-winning 4-by-100-meter relay team.
