Women's Soccer

Women's Soccer Starts Four-Game Road Trip at San Jose State on Wednesday

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Sept. 18, 2007

SAN DIEGO -

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The San Diego State women's soccer team begins a four-match road trip this week with the first stop being in San Jose, Calif., against San Jose State on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The next leg of the trip for the Aztecs will be on Sunday against UC Santa Barbara at 6 p.m.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
Three weeks into the season, San Jose State is still in search of its first win of 2007. The Spartans (0-3-2) have been trading off losses and ties since opening the season with a 3-2 loss to No. 8 Santa Clara. Wednesday will mark just the second home game of the year for SJSU after dropping the opener on Sept. 2, versus San Francisco.

SJSU is struggling on offense, netting only five goals on 65 shots. The Spartans have been shutout in their last three outings while being out-shot in those games, 47-29. Seniors Kristin Krale and Jackie Zabek lead the Spartans with two goals each. Both of Krale's scores have come off of penalty kicks.

In net, SJSU have used two different goalies with sophomore Marissa Dayton leading the team with 25 saves in four contests. San Jose State is a member of the Western Athletic Conference and has not played the Aztecs since 1996.

SCOUTING THE GAUCHOS
San Diego State makes the return trip to Santa Barbara after the Gauchos traveled to San Diego and beat the Aztecs, 2-0, in 2006.

UC Santa Barbara is off to a slow start this season recording its lone win in the season opener at home versus Loyola Marymount, 1-0. Over this past weekend, UCSB tallied two ties on its home field. On Friday, the Gauchos and Denver fought to a 0-0 score after double overtime. Two days later, UCSB tied Mountain West Conference foe UNLV, 1-1.

The Gauchos have been unable to find any offensive rhythm this season as the team has netted only four goals on 54 shots. The lack off offensive firepower has resulted in UCSB being shutout three times this season. UCSB's four goals have been scored by four different players (senior Romy Barber, junior Kathleen Prieto and freshmen Kailyn Kugler and Jacqui Simon).

Goalkeeper Katie Wright, a second-team All-Big West selection, has been the club's main bright spot making 29 saves, while starting all six games.

SDSU head coach Mike Friesen returns to UCSB where he was the associate head coach from 1999-2003. Friesen helped turnaround a program that went 7-29-2 in two seasons prior to his arrival, into one that went 24-11-6 in 2002-03.

FOLLOW AZTEC SOCCER ON THE WEB
Live Stats for Wednesday night's game will be available on SJSUSpartans.com while Sunday evening's contest can be accessed via GoAztecs.com.

LAST TIME WE MET
Wednesday's match up is the first between the Aztecs and Spartans in 11 years. In the last meeting, SDSU blanked SJSU, 3-0, led by Lori LaCoursiere who scored two goals.

In 2006, the Aztecs were held scoreless, 2-0, by the Gauchos in Santa Barbara, Calif., despite outshooting UCSB 18-11. SDSU had three different players take two shots on goal as the team suffered its second shutout loss of the season.

LAST TIME OUT
The San Diego State women's soccer team returned home last weekend for a pair of games against Cal Poly and No. 14 California at the SDSU Sports Deck. On Friday, sophomore defender Millie Allen scored the first goal of her career on a penalty kick and freshman goalkeeper Aubree Southwick tallied her third consecutive shutout in the Aztecs' 1-0 win over Cal Poly.

Against California, SDSU forced a defensive struggle where eventually the highly-ranked Bears were able to pull away for the 2-0 victory. Southwick pushed her personal scoreless streak to 429 minutes in the contest.

FROSH SENSATION
With the two goalkeepers from last year that appeared in all 1860 minutes of action over 20 games gone, the starting Aztec goalkeeper position was wide open at the start of preseason camp.

Freshman Aubree Southwick shined, showing why she was one of the top goalkeeper recruits in the country and earned the starting nod in all six of the Aztecs' games in 2007. She has played in all 580 minutes and has made 37 saves. She owns a 0.62 goals against average and stopped .902 percent of the opposition's shots on goal, which places her 46th and 23rd in the nation, respectively.

The Danville, Calif., became the first Aztec goalie since Sophia Perez in 2004 to post three consecutive shutouts and ran her personal scoreless streak to 429 minutes.

Southwick was the 2006 NSCAA California high school state player of the year and an NSCAA All-American. The 2004 U.S. Soccer Golden Glove Award recipient earned recognition on Soccerbuzz.com top-50 recruits list last season.