SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women’s soccer will begin its quest for its sixth Mountain West tournament title on Sunday night. The fourth-seeded Aztecs are set to face the fifth-seeded UNLV Rebels at 7 p.m. PT on the SDSU Sports Deck. The match will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
San Diego State (8-7-4, 6-2-3 Mountain West) is unbeaten since October 6. Following 0-0 and 2-2 draws at Colorado College and Air Force, SDSU returned home to knock off San Jose State 2-1 and Fresno State 4-0. The Aztecs tied 3-3 at Wyoming and took down Colorado State 1-0 at home heading into their final match of the regular season. On Thursday, San Diego State defeated New Mexico 4-1. Dori Savage, Emma Gaines-Ramos and Mia Lane scored in the first half to take a 3-0 lead into halftime before a Lobos goal and Savage’s second of the night brought the final to 4-1. Savage was named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week for her brace while Lane earned Freshman of the Week honors for the second time this season. Denise Castro leads the Aztecs with nine goals and 21 points and Gaines-Ramos paces the roster with seven assists. Castro is in second in the Mountain West in goals and goals per game (0.47) and third in points and points per game (1.11). As a team, the Aztecs rank in the top three in the conference in goals, assists, points, goals per game, assists per game and saves. Alexa Madueno has played the entire season in goal for SDSU, totaling 96 saves (most in the MW), equivalent to 5.05 per game (most in the Mountain West), with six shutouts. Madueno holds the school records for saves and shutouts and among active DI players, she ranks fourth in saves, is tied for 15th in shutouts and is third in goalkeeper minutes.
The Aztecs finished their home conference regular season schedule with a perfect 5-0-0 record and an astonishing 14-1 goal differential. This season, San Diego State beat Nevada (5-0), UNLV (2-0), San Jose State (2-1), Fresno State (4-0) and Colorado State (1-0) on the Sports Deck. SDSU was perfect (6-0-0) on the SDSU Sports Deck in conference last season as well. San Diego State’s last time doing anything but winning at home against Mountain West opposition was a 1-0 defeat at the hands of UNLV on October 16, 2022
This is SDSU’s 24th tournament appearance out of 25 Mountain West Championships. The Aztecs have made it every year except 2018 and hold a 20-13-7 record all time in tournament matches. San Diego State is 6-4-2 in the Quarterfinal round and 2-2-1 when facing the UNLV Rebels. The Aztecs are 1-4-1 as the No. 4 seed and 3-1-1 when facing the fifth seed.
UNLV (7-10-2, 5-5-1 MW) has been shut out in each of its last three matches. The Rebels lost 1-0 vs. Utah State on October 24, 2-0 at Boise State on October 27 and 1-0 vs. Nevada on October 31. The Aztecs and Rebels have faced off 33 times with San Diego State winning 21 times, UNLV winning on ten occasions and a pair of ties. San Diego State is 12-3-1 at home against the Rebels and 10-3-1 when playing on the Sports Deck. SDSU has won 2-0 each of the last two seasons but neither team has won more than two consecutive matches in the series since the Aztecs capped off eight straight victories in 2015.
With a win on Sunday, the Aztecs would play at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and hope to advance to the championship match at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The entire tournament will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network.