Up This Week
No. 22 - Texas Tech (0-0-0; 0-0-0 Big 12) at San Diego State (0-0-0; 0-0-0 MW)
Thursday, August 22 | 7:00 p.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
Free SDSU Clear Tote Bag For The First 200 Fans
LIU (0-0-0; 0-0-0 NEC) at San Diego State (0-0-0; 0-0-0 MW)
Sunday, August 25 | 12:00 p.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
Aztecs Notes
• San Diego State opens the 2019 season Thursday night on the SDSU Sports Deck against No. 22 Texas Tech, the first of four consecutive regular season home contests. It marks the start of SDSU's longest home stand of the season and if you include its exhibition game, the Aztecs will play five straight games, at the start of the year, on home turf.
• Head Coach Mike Friesen begins his 13th campaign leading the Mountain West's most dominant women's soccer program. Friesen has guided his squad to nine Mountain West championships (five tournament and four regular season), and five NCAA Tournament appearances. In 12 seasons of conference play, Friesen has a 72-19-15 record. His 72 victories are double that of the next closest conference coach...Wyoming's Peter Cuadrado and Boise State's Jim Thomas have won 36 games each in Mountain West play.
• Friesen's 140 victories (140-82-32) since the start of the 2007 season, the year he took control of the program, are the most by any coach in the Mountain West. Colorado College's Geoff Bennett ranks second on the list with 126 victories in the last 12 seasons.
• The Aztecs are opening the season at home for the fifth time in six seasons. In season openers on its home field, San Diego State is 12-5-1. Four of those five losses have come at the hands of Power-5 opponents. Heading into its 31st campaign, SDSU has a 17-12-1 all-time record in season openers.
• San Diego State missed the Mountain West Tournament in 2018, the first time one of head coach Mike Friesen's teams missed the conference tournament in his 12 seasons guiding the Aztecs.
• San Diego State is picked to finish fourth in the MW coaches' preseason poll. This marks the first time in 10 seasons the Aztecs have been picked to finish lower than second place. The last time SDSU was lower than second place in the preseason poll was at the beginning of the 2009 season, a year in which the team went 15-4-5, was undefeated in the Mountain West (5-0-2) and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Having won four of the last seven regular season titles, SDSU finds itself in the No. 4 spot in the Mountain West preseason coaches' poll, which snaps a six-year run of being the favorite in the eyes of the conference's head coaches.
• The Aztecs have won eight of the last 13 MW trophies (regular season and tournament), all of which have come under the direction of head coach Mike Friesen. In total, the 13th-year head coach has guided San Diego State to nine conference crowns.
• Thursday's clash with No. 22 Texas Tech comes six days after SDSU dropped a 5-0 home decision to Washington State in an exhibition match. The Aztecs created a handful of chances in the exhibition but could not put any away. The Cougars controlled the first 30 minutes of play, took a 10-3 advantage in shots and a 3-0 lead on the scoreboard into the half. The second half was much closer in the run of play, but WSU found the back of the net two more times. They owned the advantage in shots (16-to-6), corners (9-to-0) and shots on frame (6-to-1).
• Against Washington State, the Aztecs started two freshman, Kiera Utush (Fr., MF, Rocklin, Calif.) & Rachelle Elve (Fr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.), and a keeper, Brooke Lisowski (GK, Sr., Los Gatos, Calif.), who had never played a minute in goal for SDSU. Among the eight reserves who saw action, four were player who had never doned the San Diego State kit - Clarisssa Ramirez (Fr., GK, Riverside, Calif.), Macy Horn (Fr., D, Magnolia, Texas), McKenna Wallace (RFr., MF, Danville, Calif.), and Jessica Sanders (Fr., D/MF, San Carlos, Calif.). Chloe Frisch (Jr., MF/F, Solana Beach, Calif.) led the team with a pair of shots, one which was on frame. Malia Kaleiohi (Jr., MF/F, San Diego, Calif.) also produced two shots.
• San Diego State brings back its top seven point-earners from last year, including 2018 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Laura Fuentes (So., MF, Newark, Calif.). The midfielder tallied three goals and an assist as a true freshman. Fuentes finished with seven points on the year, one behind another freshman, team leader Chloe Frisch (Jr., MF/F, Solana Beach, Calif.) who totaled eight (two goals & four assists).
• Joining Frisch and Fuentes as the top returning point-getters are Taylor Moorehead (So., F, Valencia, Calif.), Phoebe Leitch (Jr., D/MF, Forest Row, England) and Darcy Weiser (Sr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) who each tallied three goals and six points in 2018. Sarah Broacha (Jr., D, Pleasanton, Calif.) and Mia Root (Jr., F, Placerville, Calif.) totaled a goal and two assists each for four points.
• With the departure of keepers Gabby English and Kate Hart, the Aztecs will have a new face in goal, one that has never played a minute for the home team on The Mesa, but SDSU has three option to choose from. Brooke Lisowski (Sr., GK, Los Gatos, Calif.) is a transfer from California, who saw action in four games, with one start, in her time with the Golden Bears. Poonan Ranu (Fr., GK, Fremont, Calif.) spent last season as a redshirt and true freshman Clarissa Ramirez (Fr., GK, Riverside, Calif.) will all vie for time in goal for the Aztecs this season.
Opponent Notebook
Texas Tech
The Red Raiders were ranked No. 22 in the United Soccer Coaches' preseason poll and are coming off a 2-1 exhibition win at Denver University on Saturday... Last season, Texas Tech posted a 14-5-3 record (5-3-1 in the Big 12), which included a 2-1 victory over the Aztecs on the Sports Deck... TTU advanced to the NCAA Tournament and reached the second round where it fell to #12 Virginia on penalty kicks... The Red Raiders have been picked to finish in fifth place in the preseason Big 12 coaches poll... Texas Tech returns the vast majority of its scoring from a year ago in Kristen Davis (7G, 7A, 21 PTS), Jade King (8G, 16 PTS) and Ally Griffin (4G, 2A 10 PTS), who combined to tally 19 of the teams 33 goals a year ago... The defense is anchored by keeper Marissa Zucchetto (13-5-3 in 2018 with 13 clean sheets), who played all but four minutes last season... In 2,045:52 over 22 matches, she allowed 12 goals (0.53 GAA) and stopped 58 shots which reached her line (.829 save percentage)... The Red Raiders are coached by Tom Stone, who is in his 13th season at the helm of the program and brings a career-record of 140-79-29 into the 2019 season.
LIU
The Sharks game against SDSU will be LIU's second of the season after playing at San Diego on Friday night... The program is a combination of two schools (LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post) which came together this summer under one banner... The Sharks were picked to finish eighth in the Northeast Conference's (NEC) coaches' preseason poll... LIU Brooklyn finished 2018 with a 2-13-3 record and were 0-9-1 on the road, being outscored 24-to-4 away from home... LIU Post was 14-4-4 last season, including a 6-1-2 record in league and a 9-1-3 record away from home... The team is decidedly young with 24-of-32 players being underclassmen, including 16 sophomores... Julia Duffy, who scored 14 goals (2A, 30 pts) for LIU Post last season, is back to lead the team in her senior season... In goal, LIU will have a newcomer, either freshman Kayla Detreux or sophomore Lydia Fraga Cordoba, who in 10 games at Georgia State in 2018-19, posted a 1-8-1 record. In 886:37, Cordoba had a goals against average of 1.52 and a .727 save percentage... The Sharks are coached by Eleri Earnshaw who is in her first season leading the combined program and third overall, having led the LIUB team for two seasons and amassing a record of 5-25-5.