Former Costa Mesa star Day returns to face UCI

Costa Mesa High legend Sharon Day returns to Orange County tonight when her Cal Poly San Luis Obispo women’s soccer team faces UC Irvine in the Anteaters’ Big West Conference opener at 7.

Day, a two-time first-team all-conference performer (2005 and 2004), who was Freshman of the Year in the conference in 2004, missed last season recovering from two surgeries on a broken foot.

The 2005 NCAA outdoor high jump champion, who won two CIF State titles in the same event in high school, is one of six Cal Poly players to have scored one goal.

Day, a 5-foot-9 senior forward, has started all 11 games for the Mustangs, who are 2-8-1, 1-1 in the Big West.

Day had seven goals and six assists as a junior in 2005. She produced 11 goals and one assist in 2004, after collecting six goals and six assists as a freshman. She leads this year’s squad with 30 shots on goal.

In high school, the former Orange County Female Athlete of the Year amassed 83 goals, 71 assists and 51 victories in four varsity seasons. She led the Mustangs to a share of the CIF Southern Section Division III title as a senior in 2002-03, when she was named CIF Division III Offensive Player of the Year.

Day finished fourth at the NCAA outdoor national championships in the high jump last spring, clearing 6 feet, well short of her personal best of 6-4.

— Barry Faulkner