Oct. 20, 2005
SAN DIEGO - The Utah women's soccer team scored both of its goals early in the second half in a 2-1 victory over San Diego State Thursday afternoon at the SDSU Sports Deck in San Diego, Calif. With the win, the first-place Utes (12-5-0) improved to 5-0-0 in the Mountain West Conference, while the Aztecs fell to 2-2-1 in MWC play and 10-7-1 overall.
In a rematch of last year's Mountain West Conference championship game, sophomore Ashley Tenn got SDSU on the scoreboard first at 28:48 with her first goal of the season. Tenn, a transfer from Nebraska, settled freshman Erika Sutton's cross from the left side of the field and blasted the ball into the net from eight yards out.
The Aztecs went into the intermission with a 9-7 advantage in shots, while Utah had three more corner kicks (4-1).
The Utes capitalized on their first real good scoring chance in the 55th minute (54:57) off a corner kick. Freshman Katy Reineke dribbled down the end line on the left side and slid the ball to classmate Adele Letro who fired a shot. SDSU goalkeeper Cat Burson was able to deflect the ball down but sophomore Whitney Dorsey was there to knock it in from six yards away. Both Letro and Reineke were credited with assists on the play.
Burson came up big for the Aztecs at the 56:35 mark, deflecting a would-be Dorsey goal over the net to keep the game tied at one apiece.
However, three minutes later (59:35), Reineke scored the game's final goal when she received a pass from Kim Lloyd and lifted a shot over Burson's head into the upper-right corner of the net from 25 yards.
The Utes finished with a 16-14 edge in shots and 6-1 lead in corner kicks.
Tenn had three shots (two on goal) to lead the SDSU offense, while sophomores Casey Davidson and Lisa Nielsen, and freshmen Mariko Strickland and Sutton each contributed two attempts.
Burson (4-3-1) played all 90 minutes for the Aztecs and had nine stops. Ashley Mason made five saves in 90 minutes for Utah.
SDSU will play its final home match of the season against No. 16 Brigham Young at the SDSU Sports Deck at 1 p.m. Saturday. The game will also be the final regular season home game for five seniors - Gricelda Alvarez, Ashley Cooper, Erica Lopez, Alexis Solovij and Amanda Swiader.
GAME NOTES: Six of SDSU's seven losses this season have been by one goal ... The Aztecs lost for only the second time in 37 matches when scoring first ... The loss was also SDSU's second in 20 games when leading at the half ... Burson's 19 saves over the last two games are the most since Linnea Quinones had 19 stops on Sept. 28 and Sept. 30 of 2001 in matches against Stanford (nine saves) and Santa Clara (10 saves) ... Sutton's MWC-leading nine assists this season are the most since Fay deLeon had nine in 2000 ... The Aztecs used their 13th different starting lineup of the season ... 10 different players have scored a goal this year for SDSU.