Nov. 5, 2004
PROVO, Utah - The third-seeded San Diego State women's soccer team and the No. 4 Utah Utes will meet for the 2004 Mountain West Conference Championship at South Stadium on Saturday. The winner of the match will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. (MST).
Each team won two matches to advance to the championship game. The Aztecs (8-7-5) had a pair of 2-0 wins against sixth-seeded New Mexico (Nov. 3) and No. 7 Air Force (Nov. 4). The Utes (13-5-2) also posted two shutout victories - 1-0 versus No. 5 Wyoming on Nov. 3 and 2-0 against top-seeded UNLV on Nov. 4.
In their only meeting of the season on Oct. 9, SDSU and Utah battled to a 0-0, double-overtime tie at Salt Lake City. The match was even throughout as each team had nine shots and nine fouls apiece.
The Utes, who lead the all-time series, 7-3-1, are unbeaten in their last four meetings with the Aztecs and are 6-1-1 in the last eight matches. SDSU's last win in the series came in a 2-1 overtime triumph on Oct. 11, 2001, at the SDSU Sports Deck. The two teams have played twice in the MWC Tournament, with Utah winning both games, most recently a 3-0 Ute win on Nov. 7, 2001.
The high pressure defense has been in full effect in the Aztecs' first two postseason games. SDSU has limited its opponents to only six shots combined - three each versus New Mexico and Air Force. The Aztecs had their 11th shutout of the season against Air Force and their seventh in eight games. SDSU has allowed only three goals (all coming in the Oct. 30 match vs. regular season champion UNLV) in eight Mountain West Conference games this season.
Sophomore Amanda McKay has one goal and one assist, and senior Gina Salinas has contributed two assists to lead the Aztec offense in the MWC Tournament. Freshmen Tiphanie Elliott, Jessica Girdner and Lisa Nielsen each have tallied goals, while junior Amanda Swiader has picked up one assist. Senior goalkeeper Sophia Perez has five saves in her two shutout victories.
For the season, sophomore Jen Klunder (three goals and two assists) and junior Alexis Solovij (three goals and one assist) lead the team in scoring with eight and seven points, respectively, and Perez is 8-6-5 with 11 shutouts and a 0.64 goals against average.
Junior Carisse Winegar, sophomore Amanda Feigt and freshman Kiley Jones and each have scored goals for Utah in the postseason, while sophomore Ashley Mason has seven stops without allowing a goal. Feight leads the squad in scoring for the season with 17 points on six goals and five assists and while Mason is 9-3-1 with six shutouts and a 0.87 GAA.
The NCAA Tournament field will be announced on Monday, Nov. 8 at 1:30 p.m. on ESPNews.