Oct. 1, 2005
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's soccer team scored both of its goals in the second half in a 2-1 victory over Hawai'i Saturday afternoon at the SDSU Sports Deck. With their third consecutive home win, the Aztecs improved to 8-5 on the season, while the Rainbow Wahine fell to 3-6-2.
Freshman Jen Mello got things started for SDSU in the 23rd minute (22:21) when she took a pass from senior Ashley Cooper, beat a Hawai'i defender on the left side of the field, and drilled the ball into the upper-right corner from about 12 yards out. Mello leads the team with five goals.
Freshman Erika Sutton made it 2-0 Aztecs at 44:30 off assists from senior Amanda Swiader and sophomore Ashley Young. Swiader took a throw-in from Young and one-touched the ball to Sutton, who settled it and put the ball into the lower-left side of the net from just outside the penalty area. Sutton is tied with Mello for the team-lead with 11 points on three goals and five assists.
SDSU went into halftime with an 8-4 lead in shots and a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks.
In the second half, the Rainbow Wahine's Natasha Kai took advantage of a misclear by an Aztec defender in the 65th minute and booted the ball past SDSU goalkeeper Christi Yount (6-4) from eight yards away for her sixth goal of the year. Shawn Higa was credited with the assist on the play.
Kai, who had a game-high eight shots, almost tied the match for Hawai'i with a little more than 11 minutes left in regulation, but Yount's diving save kept the score at 2-1 in favor of the Aztecs.
Yount played all 90 minutes for SDSU and made five saves, while Kori Lu (3-6-2) had six stops for the Rainbow Wahine.
Cooper led the Aztec offense with three shots, while Mello, and fellow freshmen Millie Allen and Mariko Strickland had two shots apiece.
For the game, SDSU outshot Hawai'i, 12-11, and had five more corner kicks (7-2).
The Aztecs will open up Mountain West Conference play on the road this weekend, beginning with a 3 p.m. (MDT) Friday match at Wyoming.