SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's soccer team plays its final two home games of the 2019 season this weekend when its hosts Fresno State on Friday night in a critical match in the conference standings and then celebrates Senior Day on Sunday against San Jose State.
Up This Week
Fresno State (9-4-2, 5-2-1 MW) at San Diego State (5-7-1, 4-2-0 MW)
Friday, Oct. 25 | 7:00 p.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
San Jose State (5-7-4, 3-3-2 MW) at San Diego State (5-7-1, 4-2-0 MW)
Sunday, Oct. 27 | 11:30a.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
Senior Day
Aztecs Notes
• San Diego State continues its 2019 Mountain West Conference schedule this week with its final two home games of the campaign against Fresno State and San Jose State.
• The Aztecs have played the Bulldogs 16 times dating back to the 1995 season and lead the all-time series 11-3-2, which includes a 7-0-1 record in games played on SDSU's home field. San Diego State won the first seven meeting in America's Finest City, before a 1-1 tie in 2017at the Sports Deck. In its seven victories at home, the Aztecs have outscored Fresno State 20-4.
• SDSU and San Jose State have met 16 times dating back to the 1994 season with San Diego State holding an 11-2-2 advantage in the series. The teams have only played nine times in San Diego, where the Aztecs are 7-0-2 against the Spartans. The teams ended in a tie in the last meeting on the Sports Deck (0-0 in 2018), but prior to that San Diego State had outscored SJSU 17-2 over the previous eight games.
• Rachelle Elve (Fr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) scored three goals and assisted on two others in a two-game road trip last week and was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week for the week ending Oct. 20. Down 3-1 at Air Force, Elve opened her weekend account with a 36th minute strike which sparked a four-goal unanswered streak. Early in the second half she assisted on a Laura Fuentes goal which drew SDSU even with the Falcons at 3-3. Then in the 79th minute, she put the game away with the eventual game-winner. On Sunday at Colorado College, SDSU again found itself down 1-0 early in the game. At the 14:00 mark, Elve found the equalizer and then assisted on a Chole Firsch goal just two minutes later which put the Aztecs up for good in the 3-2 victory.
• With her POW honor, Rachelle Elve (Fr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) joins Laura Fuentes (So., MF, Newark, Calif.) and Brooke Lisowski (Sr., GK, Los Gatos, Calif.) as Aztecs who have been recognized by the conference this season for an individual weekly award and it is the first time since the 2016 season that SDSU has had as many three players earn the honor. In addition, the three have been recognized in successive weeks. It is the fourth time in program history that SDSU has had at least three players recognized in successive weeks. The record is six straight weeks, from Sept. 24-to-Oct. 29, in the 2012 season.
• Entering this week, and with three games left in the regular season, the Aztecs sit in second place on the Mountain West table. Why is that important? The top two teams, at the end of the regular season, earn a first-round bye in the MW Championship and therefore need two wins as opposed to three in order to take home the title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
• After a tough preseason schedule in which the team went 1-5-1 and scored just three goals versus 13 for the opposition, Mountain West play came at the right time. In its eight conference games the Aztecs are 6-2-0 and have outscored opponents 19-12.
• Getting the call from the Hall of Fame... Brooke Lisowski (Sr., GK, Los Gatos, Calif.), who as a member of the Archbishop Mitty High School girl's soccer team from 2011-14, won three West Catholic Athletic League titles and three Central Coast Section championships is being inducted into her high schools Hall of Fame. As a senior she had a GAA of 0.322 in 745 minutes allowing just three goals in 17 games.
• SDSU has put together a pair of three game win streaks in MW play - at home vs. Colorado State, UNLV and Nevada from Sept. 29-to-Oct. 6, and on the road at Utah State, Air Force and Colorado College from Oct. 13-to-Oct. 20. They are the longest run of wins since the program put together six straight victories near the end of the 2017 season. The three straight road wins are impressive but consider this...In 1998 the Aztecs strung together 10 straight victories away from home. That team won its first two road contests, dropped a 3-1 decision at Cal Poly and then ripped off 10 in a row and were unbeaten until it was eliminated at Portland in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Laura Fuentes (So., MF, Newark, Calif.) scored both goals for San Diego State two weekends ago as the team split a pair of road games at Boise State and Utah State and was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week, for the week ending October 13. Fuentes' goal at Boise State, on a penalty kick, came in the 75th minute and cut the Broncos' lead in half in a 2-1 defeat. Then at Utah State, she got the game-winning header in the 68th minute of a 1-0 victory. They were the first two goals of the season for the MW's 2019 Newcomer of the Year.
• For her efforts in the Aztecs' two-game sweep the week ending October 6, Brooke Lisowski (Sr., GK, Los Gatos, Calif.) was named the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week. Lisowski was in goal for all 180 minutes, faced 20 shots and stopped three of the four that reached her line. Her goals against average was 0.50 and her save percentage was .750. It was her first weekly conference award and the first for an Aztec women's soccer player this season.
• The team's 5-4 victory at Air Force (10/18) was the highest goal output since a 5-0 win over Air Force on the Sports Deck last season and the third time it has put up at least three goals this season and the third time in the last four games.
• The Aztecs have gotten balanced scoring from the players who have found the back of the net this season and opponents can't focus on one player who can put it in the goal. SDSU has seven players who have scored; two have five goals (Frisch & Elve), one with four (Fuentes), one with three (Moorehead); two have recorded two tallies (Weiser & Utush) and Leitch has one.
• Welcome back Darcy Weiser (Sr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.). Weiser missed the first seven games and didn't make her season debut until the 38th minute at Wyoming (9/27). She scored her first goal of the year in the 82nd minute in Laramie which started a four-goal run for SDSU over the next 98 minutes and sparked a three-game winning streak. The tally started the Aztecs come back from a 3-0 deficit to the Cowgirls to make the final decision 3-2. In the team's next game, against Colorado State (9/29), SDSU was the victor, 2-0. Against UNLV (10/4), Weiser picked up her second goal, the game winner, in a 1-0 win and she assisted on the goal that put the game away in the team's 4-1 win over Nevada (10/6).
• Strikers strike...and along with Weiser's two tallies, Taylor Moorehead (So., F, Valencia, Calif.) got into the goal scoring action in Laramie and against Nevada. Moorehead's goal at Wyoming got the Aztecs to within one, 3-2, with under 10 minutes to play. It was her first goal of the year and the fourth of her career and she added her second goal of the campaign in the 4-1 victory against Nevada and her third in the Air Force win. In the Colorado State win, Rachelle Elve (Fr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) became the third striker to score this year and she followed that goal with the game winner in the squad's decision against Nevada, two including the game winner at Air Force and another in the victory at Colorado College.
Opponent Notebook
Fresno State
The Bulldogs enter the game against San Diego State with an 9-4-2 overall record, which includes an 5-2-1 mark in Mountain West play, which leaves them in third place on the MW table... FS took a pair of games last week with a 2-1 win at UNLV and a victory (2-1) at Nevada... On the road this season Fresno State is 3-2-0, 2-1-0 in conference contests. No field player has more than three goals, but 11 different players have found the back of the net. The Bulldogs have used three keepers this season with Milena Zink earning the majority of the minutes. She has as 0.93 GAA, a .771 save percentage and an 2-1-1 record... Fresno State is coached by Brian Zwaschka.
San Jose State
The Spartans enter the week with a 5-7-4 (3-3-2 MW) record and are at New Mexico on Friday before its match with the Aztecs on Sunday...SJSU is 2-4-2 in road games this year and 1-2-1 in Mountain West road games... Sabrina Weinman leads the team with four goals and 10 points... Ariana Romero has played every in goal this season. She has a 1.06 GAA and an 0.795 save percentage in 701:24... The Spartans are coached by Lauren Hanson, who is in her sixth season and brought a 49-35-19 record into 2019.
Final Homestand On Tap For SDSU Women’s Soccer
