SAN DIEGO – Coming off a pair of impressive 2-0 victories to open its home league slate last weekend, the San Diego State women's soccer team returns to the road this week with a pair of games in the state of Nevada.
NEXT UP
San Diego State (5-7-0, 3-1-0 MW) at UNLV (8-5-0, 1-3-0 MW)
Sunday, Oct. 8 | 6:30 p.m. (PT) | Johann Memorial Field | Las Vegas, Nev.
Mountain West Network / Live Stats
San Diego State (5-7-0, 3-1-0 MW) at Nevada (2-8-1, 1-2-1 MW)
Sunday, Oct. 10 | 1 p.m. (PT) | Mackay Stadium | Reno, Nev.
Mountain West Network / Live Stats
AZTEC NOTES
Sophomore keeper Alexa Madueno (So. GK, Woodland, Calif.) earned her second Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week honor on Monday. In two games last week, she recorded her fourth and fifth cleans of the season. Madueno faced 17 shots and turned away all five which reached her line. She enters this week leading the MW in shutouts (5), saves (66), and saves per game (5.50), and ranks nationally No. 25, 31 and 51 in those categories, respectively.
Freshman striker Denise Castro (Fr., MF, San Ysidro, Calif.) leads the 2021 Aztecs with six goals. Since the 2000 season, her six tallies rank No. 6 on the program's freshman goals list. The San Diego State record for freshman scoring is shared by Leah Pruitt and Mia Root, who scored 10 goals in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
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. Now in his 15th season of conference play, Friesen has an 91-28-13 record. His 91 league victories are the most by any head coach in Mountain West history (the inaugural season of the MW was in 1999).
After its first two league games, the Aztecs were 1-1-0. In head coach Mike Friesen's previous 14 seasons, San Diego State has opened conference action 1-1-0 on five occasions (2007, 2010, 2015, 2017 & 2019). In three of those seasons (2015, 2017 & 2019) the Aztecs went on to win the Mountain West regular-season title and in 2017 also won the MW Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In addition, since 2007 and prior to this year, San Diego State has started its conference slate 3-1-0 on four occasions (2007, 2010, 2015 & 2019), and in half of those seasons (2015 & 2019) the Aztecs have gone on to win the MW regular-season crown.
San Diego State's 3-1-0 start is nothing new under 15th year head coach Mike Friesen. In the team's 14 previous seasons under his guidance, it has gone on to a winning record in Mountain West action 12 times and earned 10 Mountain West titles (five regular season & 5 tournament crowns). When the Aztecs start a league slate with a winning record after four games, it went on to compile an 82-19-9 mark in those 12 conference seasons.
The series against UNLV began in 1998 and has the Aztecs owning a 17-10-2 record against the Rebels. In games played In Las Vegas, SDSU is 6-61. The last meeting, in the 2020 season, resulted in an overtime 3-2 loss at UNLV. In its last three games in Las Vegas, the Aztecs are 0-2-1. The team's last win at UNLV was a 3-0 decision on Oct. 12, 2014. (all-time series scores on pg. 5)
Nevada and San Diego State have met 12 times since the series began in the 2002 season, and the Aztecs have yet to be defeated by the Wolf Pack, holding a 12-0-0 advantage in the all-time series. In games played in Reno, San Diego State has posted a 5-0-0 mark, and in the last meeting in Reno, on April 11, 2020, senior Veronica Avalos single handedly outscored Nevada 3-1. (all-time series scores on pg. 5).
Despite posting a 2-6-0 record in the non-conference portion of its 2021 schedule, and now sitting at 5-7-0, the Aztecs slot in at No. 93 in this week's NCAA RPI rankings (Oct. 4). This week's opponents are No. 164 (UNLV) and No. 276 (Nevada) in the rankings.
Head coach Mike Friesen's 163 victories (163-101-33) since the start of the 2007 season, the year he took control of 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 147 victories in the last 14 seasons ranks second among current MW head coaches.
Now in the midst of the league season, note that the Aztecs have won nine of the last 16 MW trophies (regular season and tournament), all of which have come under the direction of head coach Mike Friesen. In total, the 15th-year head coach has guided San Diego State to ten conference titles, and San Diego State has earned 11 Mountain West titles since the conference's inception in 1999. SDSU was the regular season champions in 1999, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019. The program was the tournament champion in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017, and its five tournament titles are the most among current members of the league and the second best in the league's history (BYU, 7).
When head coach Mike Friesen put together this season's non-conference schedule, he knew it would be challenging, SDSU was just 2-6-0, but here is the breakdown after the end of the non-conference slate. When the Aztecs started the league season, its eight non-conference opponents owned a 45-17-6 record (.706), three of the eight were ranked in the top-10 last week (UCLA No. 3, Pepperdine No. 6 & Stanford No. 7), three are from what are considered Power-5 conferences, and all but one of the eight opponent's records was .500 or better.
-SDSU-
Aztecs Wrap Nevada Trip In Reno Today
