Game Week Preview
San Diego State (8-6, 0-1 MPSF) at Arizona State (5-10, 2-7 Pac-12)
Wednesday, April 17 | 3 p.m. MT/PDT | Sun Devil Lacrosse Stadium | Tempe, Ariz.
Aztec Lacrosse Storylines
* San Diego State wraps up its six-game road swing on Wednesday when it pays a visit to Arizona State for a non-conference showdown, starting at 3 p.m. MST/PDT. In addition to live stats, a link to streaming video will be available on GoAztecs.com.
* SDSU is coming off an 16-12 defeat at Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival UC Davis on April 13. Harlowe Steele and Lexi Tan each recorded hat tricks, while goalkeeper Katy Sharretts broke her own school record with 18 saves, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Aggies from clinching the No. 1 seed at the MPSF Championships, set for April 26 and 28 in Davis, Calif.
* Caitlin Jones also contributed a team-high four draw controls in that contest to pick up her second straight MPSF Rookie of the Week honor and fourth of the season. With her award, SDSU has now garnered 11 conference weekly accolades this season already.
* For the season, Steele leads the Aztecs with 37 goals, which ranks second in the MPSF, while Taylor Sullivan occupies the third spot with 35 tallies of her own. Steele and Sullivan give the Scarlet and Black a pair of 35-goal scorers for the second year in ago after Steele (38) and Jill Haight (37) became the first duo in program history to accomplish the feat last season.
* With her three-goal effort at UCD, Steele has scored at least three goals in 16 different games during her career, including eight this season. In addition, the SDSU tri-captain has notched at least one tally in 22 of her last 23 starts dating back to last year, with the lone exception in that stretch occurring in the 2018 regular-season finale at Notre Dame.
* Not to be outdone, Steele has also racked up a team-high 41 draw controls this year, surpassing Felice Artuso for second place on the program's all-time list in that category with 134 draws won for her career. With her total, the Aztec midfielder enters the week ranked fourth in the MPSF in that statistic, while Grace McGinty (36) and Bailey Brown (30) are sixth and seventh, respectively.
* The balanced SDSU offense features sports five additional double-digit goal scorers in Kirstie Greenlaw (20), Caitlin Jones (19), Morgan Taylor (18), Lexi Tan (14) and Bailey Brown (10).
* As of April 14, SDSU finds itself among the Division I leaders in shots on goal (14th, 25.00/gm), ground balls (19th, 21.46/gm) and total shots (20th, 33.21/gm). Entering the week, the Aztecs also rank 35th in draw controls with 13.86 per contest.
* Individually, Steele occupies the 12th spot nationally with 1.21 free position goals per game (17 overall), while Sullivan ranks 27th in that category (0.92, 13 overall). Elsewhere, Sharretts tops the MPSF with a team-leading 34 ground balls (2.43/gm). She also enters the week ranked 26th nationally with 136 saves for the season and is 27th with an average of 9.71 saves per game.
* Last month, Sullivan tied a school record with seven ground balls at Ohio State, which marks the top performance in the MPSF this year. She also netted her sixth hat trick of the year against the Buckeyes after recording just one last season.
* Additionally, Marissa MacRae caused a career-high four turnovers vs. Central Michigan on March 5, tying three UC Davis players for the best mark in the league so far this year in that statistic.
* San Diego State will be facing Arizona State for the second straight season after posting a narrow 14-13 victory at Aztec Lacrosse Field in 2018, which marked the third game in the Sun Devil program's history. In that contest, SDSU received goals from Harlowe Steele and Natalie Peel in the final 3:26 to overcome a 13-12 deficit, while Jill Haight set a school record with 12 draw controls.
* ASU marks the last of five Pac-12 opponents the Aztecs will encounter during the 2019 campaign. SDSU knocked off Oregon 13-8 and California 13-9 on a neutral field during its season-opening trip to Las Vegas, Nev., before falling to then-No.24 USC at home 20-16 on Feb. 22. Earlier this month, the Aztecs dropped an 18-9 decision at then-No. 18 Stanford. However, San Diego will not meet Colorado, the only other Pac-12 school to sponsor women's lacrosse.
* The Aztecs will be making their second appearance at Sun Devil Lacrosse Stadium this season after defeating Columbia 16-7 in a neutral-site affair on Feb. 24.
* SDSU will be looking to jump-start its offense after averaging just 10.00 goals during its five-game skid. Following an 18-15 victory over LIU Brooklyn on March 16, the Aztecs rose to 10th in the country with an average of 15.56 goals per contest. Over its last five outings, however, San Diego State has been forced to play from behind, trailing by an aggregate halftime score of 49-21. Still, the Aztecs are 34th nationally in scoring offense (13.57) and are on pace to surpass last year's squad, which set a program record with 256 goals.
* Sullivan's five-goal effort vs. USC on Feb. 22 marked the sixth time an Aztec player has recorded at least five tallies over the past two seasons and the second time this year after Kirstie Greenlaw accomplished the feat vs. Cal on Feb. 17. In the quarterfinals of the 2017 MPSF tournament, Ijeoma Ikpe tied a program record with seven goals vs. Oregon, while Alex Watson had five at Michigan earlier that year. Last season, Steele put up five scores vs. Arizona State, while Grace McGinty duplicated the total at Furman. With the exception of the USC clash, San Diego State emerged as the winner in the other five outings.
* The Aztecs once again signed a talented recruiting class for the 2019 season. Highlighting the group are four high school All-Americans, three all-CIF performers, seven all-conference selections, two all-county picks and five Player of the Year/Most Valuable Player award recipients. In addition, the class includes multiple players with a plethora of prep postseason and national tournament experience, while many have displayed their versatile talents in other sports as well.
* After 14 games, Caitlin Jones leads the stellar San Diego State rookie class with 19 goals, 18 draw controls and 10 ground balls, while Arielle Shahrabani has racked up six tallies, three ground balls and three caused turnovers. In addition, Courtney Robinson has four goals to her credit, along with nine draw controls, seven ground balls and a trio of caused turnovers.
* After a successful run at Aztec Lacrosse Field last season, the 2019 MPSF Championships will be contested on April 26 and 28 at Aggie Stadium in Davis, Calif. For the second year in a row, the MPSF tournament format will pit the second and third seeds in the semifinal game, with the winner advancing to the championship final against the No. 1 seed.
* The program's only coach after lacrosse became the 19th intercollegiate sport at San Diego State in 2012, Kylee White begins her eighth season at the helm of the Aztecs. She has transformed SDSU's fledgling program to a strong competitor on the West Coast, highlighted by a school-record 11 victories and the squad's first-ever MPSF championship last year. In November 2016, White was inducted into the London (Ontario) Sports Hall of Fame after becoming the only women's lacrosse player to represent Canada in each of the last three decades. In 1995, she played on the inaugural U-19 Canadian National Team and later served as an assistant for the squad in 2007. White also played for Team Canada at four IFWLA World Cups (2001, 2005, 2009, 2013), helping the 2013 team to a silver medal. A four-year letterwinner at Ohio State, White was a four-time Buckeye scholar-athlete pick and an Academic All-Big Ten performer on three occasions. She co-captained the 2002 squad to an 11-5 record and a runner-up finish in the American Lacrosse Conference, helping Ohio State claim its first NCAA berth.
Up Next
* Following Wednesday's game, San Diego State returns home to host Fresno State in its regular-season finale on Saturday, April 20, starting at 1 p.m. PT. Prior to their clash with the Bulldogs, the Aztecs will honor their nine-player senior class in a special pregame ceremony. The two sides will also meet in the semifinals of the MPSF Championships on Friday, April 26 at 5 p.m. PT in Davis, Calif.
Opponent Notebook
Arizona State
The Sun Devils (5-10, 2-7 Pac-12) snapped a two-game losing streak with an 18-6 conquest of Presbyterian College on April 14 in Clinton, S.C. The 18 goals marked a season high for ASU, which raced to an 8-0 lead en route to its largest victory margin of the year. Kerri Clayton had four goals for the Sun Devils, while Julia Burns finished with three tallies of her own to go with three assists. For the season, Clayton occupies the eighth spot in the Pac-12 with a team-leading 32 goals, while Emily Glagolev has 18 markers to her credit to go with a team-high 23 assists, which ranks sixth in the conference. In addition, Kylie Kroeger (13 goals) tops the squad with 27 draw controls and leads all ASU field players with 28 ground balls. Entering the week, goalkeeper Berkeley Bonneau is second in the Pac-12 with 157 saves and 10.47 saves per game, good for sixth and 13th in the country, while her 11.82 goals against average and .480 save percentage rank fourth and fifth in conference, respectively. As a team, the Sun Devils are averaging 9.80 goals per game, but are allowing 12.13 on defense. In addition, ASU ranks fourth in the Pac-12 with 20.00 ground balls per game while occupying the fifth spot with 10.60 draw controls per contest. Head coach Courtney Martinez Connor is in her second season on the Tempe campus, where she has compiled an 11-22 record overall and a 3-16 ledger in the Pac-12. A former lacrosse broadcast analyst at ESPN, Martinez Connor was also head coach at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County from 2005-09 after serving a four-year stint at Mount St. Mary's. As a collegiate player, she competed at Maryland from 1997-2001, helping the Terrapins capture five straight NCAA championships.
Lacrosse Travels to Arizona State for Midweek Clash
