Sept. 5, 2007
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SAN DIEGO - After opening the season with the San Diego State Soccer Tournament, the Aztec women's soccer team takes to the road for the first time in 2007 in search of its first victory of the year. On Friday, SDSU travels to Omaha, Neb., to face Creighton of the Missouri Valley Conference at 7 p.m. CDT. The Aztecs will then head to the Nebraska state capital of Lincoln to face the Cornhuskers on Sunday at 1 p.m CDT.
SCOUTING THE BLUEJAYS
The Aztecs make the return trip to Omaha after the Bluejays traveled to San Diego a year ago.
The Jays will be looking to avenge last season's 2-0 loss and continue their strong early season play.
Creighton is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 1999. The Jays looked sharp over the weekend defeating Northern Colorado at home, 2-1, and blanking Stephen F. Austin on the road, 1-0. CU was led by junior forward Marcy Gans who registered a pair of goals and an assist in the two Bluejay victories.
In both contests, Creighton received a solid effort in the net from junior Kristen Casey. Casey, who recorded her seventh career shutout versus the Ladyjacks, saved two of three shots on goal over the weekend.
The Bluejays are looking to improve on last season's disappointing 9-8-2 record. CU was tabbed as the preseason favorite in the MVC but was unable to go on a prolonged winning streak. Creighton neither won nor lost more than two matches in a row all last year.
In 2007, Creighton is looking to its senior leadership to restore them to the top of the conference standings. The Jays feature six seniors that have played in a combined 313 matches and accumulated 182 starts during their careers. CU's offensive force from last year returns in senior Toch Ihemelu. Ihemelu led the Jays in scoring with five goals and 10 points.
SCOUTING THE CORNHUSKERS
Sunday will mark only the second all-time meeting between SDSU and Nebraska. The two squads met previously in 2005 when the Cornhuskers won in Lincoln, Neb., 3-2.
The Cornhuskers return 16 letterwinners from their 2006 team that finished sixth in the Big 12 with a 4-5-1 record, 10-7-3 overall. The below .500 record in conference play cost Nebraska as the team failed to reach the Women's College Cup for the first time since 1995.
Nebraska has a huge void to fill in the lineup after the graduation of three-time Big 12 Player of the Year Brittany Timko. Timko, who was a semifinalist for the Hermann Award, was the only player in school history to lead the team in goals and assists three consecutive seasons.
With the loss of Timko, the Huskers will rely heavily on preseason All-Big 12 honoree junior Aysha Jamani. The former Big 12 All-Newcomer team member has scored 11 goals and recorded eight assists in her first two seasons.
The Huskers are off to a 1-0 start after upending Northwestern, 2-0, on Sunday thanks to goals from freshmen Alexa Cardona and Jessica Mills.
FOLLOW AZTEC SOCCER ON THE WEB
Live Stats for this weekend's games will be available on GoCreighton.com and Huskers.com. The match up versus the Jays has also been selected as the Missouri Valley Conference Game of the Week and will be shown live via video stream on www.mvc-sports.com.
TRIBBEY MAKES HISTORY
When freshman forward Katie Tribbey scored her first collegiate goal in the season opener versus Toledo, she made SDSU history. Tribbey scored 24 seconds into the contest and became the fastest player to score the Aztecs' first goal of a new campaign.
The previous record was held by Shawn Viloria who scored at the 5:40 mark in SDSU's 1993 season-opening victory over CS Fullerton.
FRESH FACE IN NET
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 the Aztecs' first two games. The native of Danville, Calif., played in all 200 minutes over the weekend and allowed two goals and made eight saves. In the season opener versus Toledo, Southwick gave up a goal three minutes into the game and proceeded to shutout the Rockets for the final 107 minutes of action.
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.