SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women’s soccer team opens its conference schedule this week with a pair of home matches on the SDSU Sports Deck against teams from the state of Nevada. SDSU will face Nevada at 7 p.m. on Thursday and UNLV at noon on Sunday. Attendance for both matches is free, and they will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
San Diego State (2-5-1) battled Utah Valley on Sunday but came up on the short end of a 4-2 result. In the match, Alexa Madueno saved a season-high nine shots as she shattered Aubree Southwick’s program career saves record of 338. Madueno has made 344 saves in her career with 11 matches remaining in the regular season. Alexyz Nakamoto scored her second career goal, coming in each of the last two matches. Nakamoto joined Logan Nidy as the only Aztec freshmen to score since the beginning of the 2022 season with each having two goals. Carlin Blake had her first goal of the season in the defeat. Emma Gaines-Ramos and Denise Castro lead the Aztecs with three goals apiece while Castro sits atop the team leaderboard with seven points and Blake paces the roster with four assists (tied for second most in the Mountain West and the second most per game in the conference). Alexa Madueno has played the entire season in goal for SDSU, totaling 36 saves (most in the MW), equivalent to 4.5 per game (also the most in the Mountain West), with a shutout.
Nevada (2-7-0) has lost its last seven matches after opening the season with wins at Kansas State and against Southern Utah on August 15 and 18, respectively. In their matches last week, the Wolf Pack fell 1-0 to Cal State Bakersfield, who SDSU beat 3-0 to open the season, and 5-1 to Cal Poly. Nevada also lost to UC San Diego 3-0 this season, with the Aztecs keeping things closer in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Tritons. Last season, the Wolf Pack finished 6-10-5 and 4-6-1 in MW play as it was bounced 2-0 by Boise State in the opening round of the Mountain West tournament. San Diego State and Nevada have played on 15 occasions with SDSU winning 13 to the Wolf Pack’s two. The Aztecs are 8-0 when the teams match up in America’s Finest City and 7-0 on the SDSU Sports Deck and will look to keep those records perfect on Thursday. The Wolf Pack’s two wins in the series came in the last two matches played in Reno, which took place in 2021 and 2023 following Aztec victories in the first dozen overall meetings.
UNLV (2-5-1) lost 1-0 in a pair of road matches last week, falling to Eastern Washington and Idaho. It marked a fall off from their success the previous week with a 3-1 win over Cal State Bakersfield and a 2-2 tie against Cal State Fullerton. SDSU defeated both common opponents, beating Cal State Bakersfield 3-0 and Eastern Washington 4-2. The Rebels opened the season with a 3-1 win over Southern Utah. Prior to Sunday’s match, UNLV will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a match at the New Mexico Lobos on Thursday. Last season, UNLV finished 7-7-6 and 3-5-3 in conference play, not qualifying for the Mountain West tournament. The Aztecs and Rebels have faced off 32 times with San Diego State winning 20 times, UNLV winning on ten occasions and a pair of ties. San Diego State is 11-3-1 at home against the Rebels and 9-3-1 when playing on the Sports Deck. SDSU won 2-0 last season but neither team has won more than two consecutive matches in the series since the Aztecs capped off eight straight victories in 2015.
Following this week’s action, the Aztecs hit the road for the next two weeks for a quartet of matches. San Diego State plays at No. 10 Utah State on October 3, Boise State on October 6, Colorado College on October 10 and Air Force on October 13. All four matches will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.