SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's soccer team plays its final regular-season contest on Friday evening at New Mexico and with a win will secure at least a share of the 2019 Mountain West regular-season championship.
Up This Week
San Diego State (9-7-1, 8-2-0 MW) at New Mexico (9-7-1, 5-4-1 MW)
Friday, Nov. 1 | 7:30 p.m. (MT) | UNM Soccer Complex | Albuquerque, N. M.
Aztecs Notes
• San Diego State wraps up its 2019 Mountain West Conference schedule this week with its final regular-season game of the campaign at New Mexico on Friday evening.
• The Aztecs have played the Lobos 28 times dating back to the 1993 season and lead the all-time series 13-8-7, which includes a 4-4-4 record in games played in Albuquerque. San Diego State has won the last three meeting at New Mexico. But in last year's regular season finale, the Lobos defeated SDSU 3-1 on the Sports Deck to eliminate the Aztecs from the MW Championship Tournament.
• With its sweep of games last weekend, SDSU has wrapped up a first-round bye in next week's MW Championship tournament in Boise, Idaho. It will be the eighth time in head coach Mike Friesen's 13 seasons at the helm of the Aztecs that his program has earned a first-round bye in the tournament.
• With a win at New Mexico on Friday night, the Aztecs will secure at least a tie for the Mountain West's regular season championship, the program's fifth regular season championship. A win combined with a Boise State loss at Utah State would give SDSU the championship alone.
• With a 2-0 record and an assist on a game-winning goal, Brooke Lisowski (Sr., GK, Los Gatos, Calif.) was named the MW Defensive Player of the Week for the week ending October 27. In two games, the Los Gatos, Calif., native, allowed just one goal in a total of 182 minutes, posting a 0.50 goals against average and had a .857 save percentage. This is her second Mountain West weekly honor, the fourth for an Aztec women's soccer player in the last four weeks and Lisowski is now one of two players to earn multiple Defensive Player of the Week honors in the Mountain West this year.
• Aztec senior Rachel Speros (Sr., D, Danville, Calif.) enjoyed her final appearance on The Mesa with a goal in the 30th minute of the team's 3-0 victory over San Jose State last Sunday. It was the first tally in exactly two years for the central defender. Speros' last goal came on Oct. 27, 2017 in a 4-3 decision at New Mexico.
• Chloe Frisch (Jr., MF, Solana Beach, Calif.) has emerged as one of the Aztecs most formattable offensive threats. Frisch ranks second on the side with five goal, more than double her previous season high of two, and leads the team with eight assists, again double her previous best of four. Frisch now stands one assist from joining the program's single-season top-10 list for assists. Frisch also leads the team in shots (57), shots on goal (21) and points (18).
• Rachelle Elve (Fr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) has scored six goals to lead the San Diego State in that category, but she is far from the first freshman to pace the side in goals for a given year. The last freshman to top the squad in tallies was Mia Root who banged home 10 goals in her initial campaign of 2017. Leah Pruitt (10 goals in 2015), Jen Mello (8 goals in 2005) and Kim Castellanos (10 goals in 2000) are the other freshman who have led the team in goals since the 2000 season.
• Rachelle Elve (Fr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) scored three goals and assisted on two others in a two-game road trip two weeks ago 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 two-time selection 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 four successive weeks. It is the fourth time in program history that SDSU has had at least three player recognized in successive weeks. The record is six straight weeks, from Sept. 24-to-Oct. 29, in the 2012 season.
• 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 10 conference games the Aztecs are 8-2-0 and have outscored opponents 24-13. San Diego State which struggled to find the back of the net early on, now sits atop the scoring list by six goals to the second-place team Air Force. In the non-conference SDSU was outscored by 1.43 goals per game, but in MW play they are outscoring opponents by 1.10 goals a contest...That's a difference of over 2.5 goals per game!
• 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 five-game winning streak which is its longest run of wins since the program put together six straight victories near the end of the 2017 season. Heading into its match at New Mexico, the Aztecs are riding three straight road wins which is 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 being eliminated at Portland in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Laura Fuentes (So., MF, Newark, Calif.) scored both goals for San Diego State three 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 nine players who have scored. Elve leads the team with six strikes, Frisch has five, two enter the weekend with four (Moorehead & Fuentes), three have recorded two tallies (Weiser, Leitch & Utush) and Tucker and Speros have one each.
Opponent Notebook
New Mexico
The Lobos enter the game against San Diego State with an 9-7-1 overall record, which includes an 5-4-1 mark in Mountain West play, which leaves them in fifth place on the MW table... UNM went 0-1-0 last week with a 0-2 loss vs. San Jose State and a tie (2-2) against Fresno State... At home this season New Mexico is4-1-1, 2-1-1 in conference contests. Gwen Maly leads the Lobo attack with six goals and 12 points. Leilani Baker also has 12 points on five goals and a pair of assists. UNM had used two keepers this season with Malia Vanisi earning the vast majority of the minutes. She has as 1.11 GAA, an .811 save percentage and an 8-6-1 record in 1,375:35 of action... New Mexico is coached by Heather Dyche who is in her fifth season leading the program and brought a 44-29-9 record in Albuquerque into the season.
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