SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women's soccer wrap up its first road trip of the 2021 season with a Sunday matinee at No. 13 Stanford, an opponent it has not faced in nearly nine seasons.
UP NEXT
San Diego State (1-2-0) at No. 13 Stanford (2-0-0)
Sunday, August 29 | 1 p.m. (PT) | Laird Q. Cagan Stadium | Stanford, Calif.
AZTECS NOTES
After opening the 2021 season with a win, but dropping its last two games, San Diego State looks to bounce back on Sunday afternoon at No. 13 Stanford.
In a series that began in 1990, the Aztecs have played Stanford nine times and are 0-8-1 in the all-time series, including a 0-4-0 mark in games played at Stanford. The teams have not played since Sept. 14, 2012, in the Santa Clara Classic, which ended in a 1-0 decision for the Cardinal. The last matchup at Stanford saw the Cardinal defeat SDSU 5-2 on August 30, 2009.
The Aztecs opened the regular season on August 19 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 (159-96-33) 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.
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.
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. 8 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 53 career games.
Striker Emma Gaines-Ramos (So., F, San Diego, Calif.) has tallied three shots, putting one on frame, in 172 minutes. Gaines-Ramos was a first-team All-Mountain West honoree last season after producing three assists in league play, the second most by an Aztec true freshman in the last five years.
Denise Castro (Fr., MF, San Ysidro, Calif.) is one of two freshmen to have started all three games this season. In 185 minutes, she has produced three shots, all on frame, and scored the first goal of her collegiate career in the team's 1-2 decision at Saint Mary's (8/26).
Claire Watkins (Jr., D, San Diego, Calif.) has started all 14 games since transferring from Oregon prior to the 2020 campaign. In 199 minutes, this season she has produced three 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), a consecutive streak of 13 games. 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 led to Fuentes' game winning PK. She did not compete at Saint Mary's (8/26).
Sarah Funk (Fr., F, El Cajon, Calif.) is one of two freshmen (Denise Castro) to have started all three games this season. She produced one shot in her collegiate debut vs. Army West Point (8/19).
In total, nine freshmen/newcomers have seen field time for the Aztecs this season. In addition to Castro and Funk, Trinity Coker (Fr., D, Poway, Calif.) has played 86 minutes in three games and attempted one shot. Hope Paredes (Fr., MF, Irvine, Calif.) has 134 minutes in three games, including a start at Saint Mary's (8/26), and has produced three shots. Nicholette Palomo (Fr., F, Cerritos, Calif.), has one shot, and along with Alexys Ocampo (Fr., F/MF, Upland, Calif.) and Carlin Blake (MF, Overland Park, Kan.), have played 32, 82 and 128 minutes, respectively. Lily Davis (So., D, San Diego, Calif.), a transfer from Indiana has played in two matches and a total of 91 minutes, and Olivia Sekimoto (So., MF/F, Chula Vista, Calif.), a transfer from American University, played 10 minutes in her lone appearance, at Saint Mary's (8/26).
At Saint Mary's (8/26), freshman Denise Castro, Sarah Funk and Hope Paredes earned starting assignments. It marked nearly two years since San Diego State had three freshmen in the starting lineup. The last time the Aztecs started three freshman was in the championship match of the 2019 Mountain West Tournament (Nov. 19, 2019) when then freshmen Kiera Utush (D, Rocklin, Calif.), Jessica Sanders (D, Belmont, Calif.) & Rachelle Elve (F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) earned starting assignments.
2020 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-Mountain West performer Anna Toohey (Sr., F, Winston-Salem, N.C.), has played 183 minutes and produced one shot against Army West Point (8/19).
Alexa Madueno (Fr., GK, Woodland, Calif.) played every minute of the team's first three games and every minute of her college career (1,275 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. At Saint Mary's (8/26) she recorded a career-high 8 saves. So far this year, she is 1-2-0 with a 1.67 GAA and a .783 save percentage and leads the MW and is No. 16 nationally in saves (18). 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 2019 & 2020, 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 four assists in 46 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 have played 225 and 228 minutes, respectively.
Aztecs At No. 13 Stanford On Sunday
