SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women's soccer head coach Mike Friesen has signed a new contract through the 2027 season. Friesen has the most wins in school history, and has led the Aztecs to five NCAA tournaments and a sweet sixteen appearance in 2012.
Friesen has been the architect of the most successful run in SDSU women's soccer history. In 17 seasons, he has guided the Aztecs to 11 Mountain West championships (five tournament and six regular season) and five NCAA tournament appearances. In the team's eight appearances in the Mountain West tournament, from 2012 through 2020, Friesen's Aztecs reached the league's championship match eight times. Along the way, he became San Diego State's all-time leader in victories (172; 172-111-43) and winning percentage (.594). At the conference level, Friesen owns the most Mountain West wins of any coach in league history (98; 98-34-18) and is the league's active leader in career victories.
During his tenure, SDSU players have garnered one All-American, 21 all-region honors, three Mountain West Offensive Players of the Year, three Mountain West Defensive Players of the Year, five Mountain West Freshmen/Newcomer of the Year and 73 All-Mountain West selections. SDSU student-athletes have also excelled in the classroom as well, with 127 earning Mountain West all-academic honors. Personally, he has twice been named MW Coach of the Year, in 2009 & 2012, and the 2012 NSCAA West Region Coach of the Year.
Under Friesen's guidance, the program, which focuses on the process, has made strides into becoming a rising power not only in the West, but nationally. Leading up to and during the 2012 campaign, a major focus for the team was the "process" in becoming great and being a champion. Friesen and his staff's philosophy proved fruitful for the squad as they quickly became one of the top teams in country.
The 2012 campaign was a direct result of the "process" and just a small step in the right direction as SDSU enjoyed the finest season in school history after the Aztecs captured the Mountain West regular-season and tournament titles, advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first-time ever, shared the best record nationally at 21-2-1, and finished the year ranked seventh nationally after rising to as high as third.
Team success breeds individual awards and 2012 was no exception. Friesen helped senior Megan Jurado become San Diego State's first All-American since 1998, and that was after the forward was named MW Offensive Player of the Year. In addition, Haley Palmer was the MW Defensive Player of the Year, and Friesen garnered conference coach-of-the-year honors. Palmer would go on to earn the award in 2013, as well.
From 2013-14, SDSU dominated the Mountain West, winning both the regular-season and tournament crowns. Its three-year sweep of the titles made them just the third MW team to accomplish the feat in league history.
In 2015, the winning continued as SDSU compiled a 15-4-1 record and ended the season on 12-game unbeaten streak, which included 11 straight wins, en-route to the MW regular-season title. The Aztecs made history with their fourth straight outright regular-season crown, becoming the first school in Mountain West history to accomplish the feat.
A season later, San Diego State produced a 10-3-4 campaign, and the Aztecs reached the Mountain West title game for a fifth straight year. SDSU's sixth consecutive season of at least ten wins, from 2012-to-2017, gave the program 84 wins, which are the most over any six-year stretch in school history.
The 2017 club played one of the toughest non-conference schedules, but rebounded down the stretch, winning four consecutive games to earn a No. 2 seed in the MW Championship where it posted a pair of shutouts en route to the title. As a result, SDSU returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014.
Friesen, who was named head coach in 2007, worked for two seasons to establish a culture that ultimately produced a 2009 Mountain West tournament crown. The league championship was the school's first since 1999, and SDSU posted its first NCAA tournament win since 1998. Friesen's Aztecs went on a 16-game unbeaten run, including winning their final eight to propel them into the second round of the 2009 NCAA tourney. During its magical run, SDSU went unbeaten in Mountain West play (5-0-2) for the first time in school history and won the school's first MW tournament title. Friesen ultimately earned his first MW Coach-of-the-Year Award for helping SDSU become the sixth-most improved team in NCAA Division I and post the second-best win improvement nationally (+9).
Friesen was an assistant coach under former SDSU head coach Dr. Mike Giuliano. In their first season in 2004, SDSU posted 12 shutouts, the second most in school history, and allowed just 18 goals in 21 games, the program's fewest since the 1990 squad gave up 12 goals in 13 games. The effort culminated in the Aztecs' first appearance in the MW championship game since 1999.