SAN RAMON, Calif. – San Diego State women’s soccer midfielder KK Chowana-Bandhu was named the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Week, the league announced Tuesday afternoon.
Chowana-Bandhu appeared in both matches for SDSU (9-3-3, 3-1-2 Pac-12) in an undefeated week for the Aztecs, recording a hat trick in Sunday’s win over Fresno State. The native of Oak Park, California, started on Thursday and played for 56 minutes in each match, taking six shots with three on goal across the two contests.
On Sunday, Chowana-Bandhu scored the first three of SDSU’s four goals to pull away from Fresno State in what became a 4-1 victory. In the 30th minute, she got past two defenders and placed a perfect ball just out of the reach of the keeper into the right corner of the goal. Seven minutes afterwards, Emma Fuller threw the ball in to Katie Senn. She made a high pass to Chowana-Bandhu in front of the goal, who headed it in to give the Aztecs a 2-1 halftime lead. About a minute and a half after play resumed for the second half, the freshman achieved her hat trick on a long shot from the top left corner of the box.
Chowana-Bandhu became the first Aztec freshman with a hat trick since Kim Castellanos had two in 2000, on October 20 against New Mexico and on October 22 against UNLV. Chowana-Bandhu also followed Victoria Miller’s performance against Colorado State for the second consecutive Aztec home match to feature a hat trick. Both times that San Diego State has achieved multiple hat tricks at home in a season (2000 and 2026), the performances came in consecutive home matches. Her performance on Sunday doubled her season and career total to six goals, a number not achieved by any Aztec freshmen since Denise Castro scored eight goals in 2021. Castro would go on to finish her career third in program history in both points and goals.
The freshman has her second Pac-12 Newcomer of the Week award this season after winning on September 22 for two goals in two matches. Two other Aztecs have also won Pac-12 weekly awards this season with Kailey Carlen earning Defensive Player of the Week on August 18 and Victoria Miller picking up Offensive Player of the Week on October 13.
The Aztecs will wrap up their home slate on Friday, October 30, at 7 p.m., with a match against the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The team is celebrating senior night and will honor four players prior to the match. Admission to all home matches is free and all remaining matches will be broadcast on the Pac-12 YouTube page.