SAN DIEGO – After earning a split in its first week of competition, the San Diego State women's soccer team head out on the road for two games, starting on Thursday with a contests against the Saint Mary's College Gaels in Moraga, Calif.
UP NEXT
San Diego State (1-1-0) at Saint Mary's (2-0-0)
Thursday, August 26 | 4 p.m. (PT) | Saint Mary's Stadium | Moraga, Calif.
AZTECS NOTES
After splitting its opening two matches of the 2021 season, both at the Sports Deck, San Diego State set out on the road from its first two games away from home. The Aztecs play at Saint Mary's on Thursday afternoon and are then at Stanford for a Sunday matinee.
The Aztecs 0-3 decision against Pepperdine on Aug. 22, snapped an 11-game home match winning streak. The last time San Diego State had lost on the Sports Deck prior to Sunday night came on Sept. 13, 2019, in a 0-1 decision to San Diego. The Aztecs had gone nearly two years without a home defeat.
Laura Fuentes (Sr., MF, Newark, Calif.) scored the lone goal in the Aztecs season-opening 1-0 decision against Army West Point. She opened her season account with a 58th minute penalty kick. Fuentes is a perfect 4-for-4 in her career in PKs and has tallied one in each of her four seasons.
The Mountain West announced on Thursday, August 19, that all conference contests which were scheduled for October 29 have been rescheduled for October 28, and that the Mountain West Championship, originally set to run from Nov. 2-6 in Boise, Idaho, will now be conducted from Nov. 1-6 in Boise.
In a series that began in 1991, the Aztecs have played Saint Mary's seven times and are 3-4-0 in the all-time series, including a 0-4-0 mark in games played in Moraga. The teams have played only one time this millennium, a San Diego State victory, 1-0 on August 25, 2013, on the Sports Deck. The last matchup in Moraga saw the Gaels earn a 2-1 decision on Sept. 26, 1997.
The Aztecs opened the regular season on Thursday with a 1-0 victory over Army West Point. The win improved the program's record in season openers, on its home pitch, to 15-6-1. Since 2007, when head coach Mike Friesen assumed leadership of the program, SDSU is 7-3-1 in games which opened a season on the Sports Deck. Those three losses are all to Power-5 programs, and two of those programs went on to appear in that season's NCAA Tournament (UCLA in 2016 & Texas Tech in 2019). Now in its 33rd year of competition, the Aztecs are 18-14-1 overall in season openers, regardless of location.
In his 15th campaign leading the Mountain West's most dominant women's soccer program, head coach Mike Friesen has guided his squad to ten Mountain West championships (five tournament and five regular season), and five NCAA Tournament appearances, each the most among any current league head coach. Entering his 15th season of conference play, Friesen has an 88-27-13 record. His 88 league victories are the most by any head coach in Mountain West history (the inaugural season of the MW was in 1999).
Friesen's 159 victories (159-95-33) since the start of the 2007 season, the year he took over the program, are the most by any current coach in the MW and rank second in league history (Jennifer Rockwood, BYU, 190 victories). Colorado College's Geoff Bennett's 145 victories in the last 14 seasons ranks second among current MW head coaches.
PLAYER NOTES
Laura Fuentes (Sr., MF, Newark, Calif.), a 2020 United Soccer Coaches second-team All-Pacific Region and first-team All-MW performer leads the side with five shots (No. 7 in the MW), four shots on frame and the lone goal in a 1-0 decision against Army West Point (8/19). The tally was the fourth PK of her career and the fourth game winner. She has never missed a contest and has earned a starting assignment in each of her 52 career games.
Striker Emma Gaines-Ramos (So., F, San Diego, Calif.) has tallied two shots, putting one on frame, in 109 minutes. Gaines-Ramos was a first-team All-Mountain West honoree last season after producing three assists, the second most by an Aztec true freshman in the last five years.
In her collegiate debut, Denise Castro (Fr., MF, San Ysidro, Calif.) earned a start against Army West Point (8/19). In two games, both starts, she has produced two shots, both on goal, in 123 minutes of action.
Claire Watkins (Jr., D, San Diego, Calif.) has started all 13 games since transferring from Oregon prior to the 2020 campaign. In 155 minutes, she has produced two shots. She, along with fellow defenders Kiera Utush (Jr., D, Rocklin, Calif.) and Lauren Dicus (Sr., D, Danville, Calif.), each played 90 minutes against Army West point (8/19). With the departure of four-year starting center defender Sarah Broacha, Watkins and Utush have taken the reins as the program's center defenders.
Lauren Dicus (Sr., D, Danville, Calif.) earned the 38th starting assignment of her career against Pepperdine (8/22), including the last 13 games in a row. Dicus took one shot against Army West Point (8/19) and her 58th minute attempt resulted in a hand ball in the AWP box and resulted in Fuentes' game winning PK.
Sarah Funk (Fr., F, El Cajon, Calif.) produced one shot in her collegiate debut vs. Army West Point (8/19) and along with Castro are the two freshmen to have started each of the first two matches of 2021.
In total, seven freshmen saw field time in the Aztecs season opener. In addition to Castro and Funk, Trinity Coker (Fr., D, Poway, Calif.) played 45 minutes and attempted one shot. Hope Paredes (Fr., MF, Irvine, Calif.) produced a shot in 27 minutes and Nicholette Palomo (Fr., F, Cerritos, Calif.), Alexys Ocampo (Fr., F/MF, Upland, Calif.) and Carlin Blake (MF, Overland Park, Kan.), played 17, 24 and 53 minutes, respectively.
Against Pepperdine (8/22), nine newcomers saw playing time, including the seven freshman who played vs. Army West Point (8/19). Transfers Lily Davis (So, D, San Diego, Calif.) and Olivia Sekimoto (So., MF/F, Chula Vista, Calif.) played 25 and nine minutes, respectively vs. Pepperdine. Davis transferred from Indiana while Sekimoto arrived on The Mesa after a season at American University.
2020 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-Mountain West performer Anna Toohey (Sr., F, Winston-Salem, N.C.), was on the field against Army West Point (8/19) for 73 minutes and attempted one shot. Versus Pepperdine (8/22) she played 62 minutes.
Alexa Madueno (Fr., GK, Woodland, Calif.) played every minute of the team's first two games and every minute of her college career (1,185 minutes). Against Army West Point (8/19) she recorded the fourth clean sheet of her college career in a 1-0 decision. Madueno made four saves, three in the final 10 minutes to secure the Aztecs victory. She went 8-3-0 last year, had a .714 save percentage (35-of-49) and surrendered 14 goals in 1,005 minutes (1.25 GAA). She was included on the Mountain West All-Newcomer team and was a second-team All-MW performer. Madueno is the first true freshman keeper to start every game in a season for SDSU since Aubree Southwick in 2007 and is the third keeper, and only true freshman, to play every minute in a season for the Aztecs since Stephanie Pearson in 2003. The only other keeper to start and play every minute in a season for San Diego State since 2003 was Brooke Lisowski in 2019.
Rachelle Elve (Jr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) has totaled 10 goals in the last two seasons, the highest total among returning Aztecs (Chloe Frisch, who graduated after the 2020 season, scored 11 goals in her last two campaigns). Elve returns this season as the Mountain West's top goal scorer in the last two seasons. At San Jose State (3/12/21), in the team's first foray away from home during the 2020 campaign, she tallied the program's 10th hat trick and the first since Aliyah Utush's trifecta vs. New Mexico on Nov. 4, 2017.
Two seniors from last season have opted to utilize the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Malia Kaleiohi (Sr., D, San Diego, Calif.), who has a goal and three assists in 44 career games, and Daniela Filipovic (Sr., MF, Laguna Hills, Calif.), who recorded the first point of her career, an assists last season, are back in 2021. Kaleiohi & Filipovic produced a shot each in the Pepperdine game (8/22) and played 90 and 75 minutes, respectively.
-SDSU-
Aztecs First Road Test Thursday At Saint Mary’s
