SAN DIEGO – After nearly 16 months off, the San Diego State women's soccer program returns to the field to open its defense of its share of the 2019 Mountain West regular-season title this weekend with games on Friday night against Nevada and a Sunday matinee against Boise State, which along with the Aztecs were picked to share this year title.
THIS WEEK
Nevada (0-0-0; 0-0-0 MW) at San Diego State (0-0-0; 0-0-0 MW)
Friday, March 5 | 6:00 (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
Boise State (0-0-0; 0-0-0 MW) at San Diego State (0-0-0; 0-0-0 MW)
Sunday, March 7 | 12 p.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
SCENE SETTER
San Diego State opens the 2021 Spring season with consecutive home contests this weekend on the Sports Deck against Nevada and Boise State.
The 2020 season will be contested in the Spring 2021 semester and will consist of Mountain West Conference games only. The 10-match conference-only schedule, in a divisional double round-robin format, will take place over a six-week period (March 5-April 11). Matches will be played on Friday and Sunday. A single match will take place on Sat., April 17, at a campus site between the two division winners to determine the Conference automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.
The Aztecs are in the West Division with Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Jose State and UNLV. The Mountain Division includes Air Force, Colorado College, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming. There will be no regular season inter-divisional games.
Head Coach Mike Friesen begins his 14th campaign leading the Mountain West's most dominant women's soccer program. Friesen has guided his squad to ten Mountain West championships (five tournament and five regular season), and five NCAA Tournament appearances. In 13 seasons of conference play, Friesen has an 80-22-15 record. His 80 victories are the most by any current Mountain West head coach.
Friesen's 150 victories (150-91-33) 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 136 victories in the last 13 seasons.
The Aztecs are opening the season at home for the sixth time in seven seasons. In season openers on its home field, San Diego State is 12-6-1. Five of those six losses have come at the hands of Power-5 opponents. Heading into its 32nd campaign, SDSU has a 17-13-1 record in season openers.
San Diego State is picked to finish with a share of the conference crown in the MW coaches' preseason poll. This marks the tenth time in 11 seasons the Aztecs have been picked to finish in either first or second place. The last time SDSU was lower than second place in the preseason poll was last season, a year in which it was predicted to finish fourth. That team went 10-9-1, shared the Mountain West regular-season title at 8-3-0, and reached the championship game of the league tournament.
Having won five of the last eight regular-season titles, SDSU finds itself as the favorite in the eyes of the conference's head coaches for the seventh time in the last eight years.
The Aztecs have won nine of the last 15 MW trophies (regular season and tournament), all of which have come under the direction of head coach Mike Friesen. In total, the 14th-year head coach has guided San Diego State to ten conference crowns.
San Diego State brings back six of its eight goal scorers from last year, including 2019 first-team All-Mountain West performer Chloe Frisch (Sr., F/MF, San Diego, Calif.). Frisch tallied five goals, including two game winners, and led the side with eight assists. Her 66 shots and 24 shots on goal were tops on the squad and her 18 points tied for the most among the Aztecs last season. She begins the abbreviated 2021campaign with 15 career assists, which ties her for 10th place on the program's career list.
Joining Frisch is the team's top goal scorer from last season, Rachelle Elve (So. F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) who broke through for seven goals last year, including a team high three game-winners, and with four assists matched Frisch's 18 points. Elve was a second-team All-Mountain West honoree as well as a member of the All-Newcomer Team. Also returning for her junior campaign is Taylor Moorehead (Jr., F, Valencia, Calif. Moorehead set career bests last season in shots (25), goals (5), assists (2) and points (12).
The 2018 MW Newcomer of the Year and second-team All-Mountain West in 2018 & 2019, midfielder Laura Fuentes (Jr., MF, Newark, Calif.) had two game winners among her four goals last season and added a pair of assists for 10 points, all were career-bests. Kiera Utush (So., MF, Rocklin, Calif.) found the back of the net three times and assisted on two other tallies for eight points. She had the game winner against Fresno State in the 2019 MW Tournament semifinal game.
With the departure of keeper Brooke Lisowski, who played every minute last season, the Aztecs will have a new face in goal in 2021, one that has never played a minute for San Diego State. SDSU has two options to choose from in redshirt freshman Clarissa Ramirez (RFr., GK, Riverside, Calif.) and true freshman Alexa Madueno (Fr., GK, Woodland, Calif.). Ramirez was a member of the U15-U17 Mexican National Team, spent five years in the So-Cal Olympic Development Program, won the 2016 ODP national championship, and was a six-time ODP regional champion. Madueno was a two-time All-Tri County Conference (TCC) performer at Pioneer High in Woodland, Calif., and participated in the 2017 ODP national training camp as well as competed for state and regional ODP teams.
-SDSU-
Women's Soccer Set To Open Defense Of MW Title
