Aug. 26, 2015
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Women's Soccer Weekly Notes
Game Week Preview
[RV/22] San Diego State (2-0) at [RV/--] California (1-1)
Saturday, Aug. 29 | 2 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Bay Area | Goldman Stadium | Berkeley, Calif.
[RV/22] San Diego State (2-0) at [22/--] Arizona State (1-0)
Monday, Aug. 31 | 7 p.m. PT | TheSunDevils.com | Sun Devil Soccer Stadium | Tempe, Ariz.
Storylines
- San Diego State, ranked 22nd in the Soccer America top-25 poll, continues its tough stretch to open the season with a pair of road games at Pac-12 schools. SDSU is at California on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. PT, before facing No. 22 (NSCAA) Arizona State in Tempe on Monday at 7 p.m. PT. The contest at Cal will air on Pac-12 Bay Area, while the tilt with the Sun Devils will be streamed online.
- The Aztecs are coming off a successful opening weekend after posting a 2-0 record. San Diego State dismissed Utah Valley, 6-0, in its season opener on Friday before heading to Lexington and beating No. 16/17 Kentucky, 2-0, Sunday night. SDSU is 2-0 for the first time since 2012 when it started 7-0 en route to a 21-2-1 final effort.
- In the game vs. Utah Valley, the Aztecs received a balanced attack as five players scored and three tallied assists. Aliyah Utush scored in the second and 24th minutes and was followed by single goals from Zsuria Phare, Hedda Regefalk, Angela Mitchell and Leah Pruitt. Stacie Moran had two assists, while Pruitt and Morgan Darling each tallied one apiece. All 22 players who suited for the game saw action as well, including back-up goalkeeper Kate Hart.
- Of the seven players to record a point in the game vs. Utah Valley, six were either first- or second-year Aztecs. The lone outlier was junior Morgan Darling, who assisted on Zsuria Phare's first goal as an Aztec. The trend continued at Kentucky when all three point-earners were first- or second-year players in the program.
- In the game at nationally ranked Kentucky, Leah Pruitt set up both of San Diego State's goals. The first came in the 15th minute when Angela Mitchell found the lower right-hand corner and the second occurred 34 seconds into the second half on Milan Moses' first goal in an SDSU uniform.
- For their effort last week, Alta Loma High School teammates Stacie Moran and Leah Pruitt were named the Mountain West Defensive and Offensive Players of the Week, respectively. Moran, who earned her second career award, had a career-high two assists vs. Utah Valley and played the full 90 minutes in both of SDSU's shutout victories. As for the true freshman Pruitt, she finished the week with a team-high five points after recording a goal and an assist vs. UVU and two helpers at Kentucky.
- Saturday's game will pit two of the top teams in California over the last three-plus seasons. The Aztecs have won 51 games since the start of the 2012 campaign, while the Golden Bears have won 42. Among schools in the state, SDSU and California rank third and fourth, respectively, behind only UCLA (62) and Stanford (57).
- SDSU at Cal is a rematch of last year's first-round NCAA game, one in which San Diego State was on the short end of a 3-2 double-OT score. It was the Aztecs' third straight NCAA appearance and the Golden Bears' 11th. UCLA owns the longest active NCAA tourney streak in California with 18 straight berths and is followed by Stanford (16), Cal and SDSU.
- Ninth-year head coach Mike Friesen is on the verge of winning his 100th career game. He enters the week with a career mark of 99-53-22, which equates to a .632 winning percentage, the highest in Aztec women's soccer history. Friesen is looking to become just the second head coach in program history to win at least 100 games. Chuck Clegg, who coached the Aztecs in 1989 and from 1994-2003, is the all-time leader with 122 victories (122-81-8; .597).
- The road is not a place where San Diego State is intimidated. Even with the NCAA tournament loss at California last year, SDSU still posted a 6-2 record in true road games in 2014. When you include the Aztecs' win at No. 16/17 Kentucky on Sunday, they are winning almost at a .700 clip, posting a 22-9-2 (.697) record on the road since 2011.
- San Diego State has held its own when it comes to playing nationally ranked squads in the regular season since the start of 2011. The Aztecs have gone 5-5-1 against teams that have appeared in the polls at game with two of those victories coming against top-10 squads, including last year's 3-0 triumph over No. 10 Michigan. SDSU has won its last two regular-season games vs. nationally ranked teams. By comparision, in the two seasons prior to 2011, San Diego State was 0-5-2 against ranked teams.
Opponent Notebook
California
The Golden Bears are 1-1 on the year after losing to No. 19 BYU, 2-0, and beating Hawai'i, 5-1, in Honolulu... Arielle Ship recorded a hat trick vs. UH in the first 52 minutes and Cal received goals from Guro Bergsvand and Kelly Fitzgerald before allowing a goal in the 84th minute... California is 7-4 all-time vs. San Diego State, but the teams have split the last two games, both of which took place in the NCAA tournament (SDSU won in 2012)... The Aztecs are 0-5 all-time in Berkeley.
Arizona State
The Sun Devils are 1-0 after earning a 3-0 win over Portland State... In that game, three ASU players scored (Cali Farquharson in the sixth, Larisa Staub in the 17th, Aly Moon in the 51st)... Before playing host to SDSU, Arizona State will welcome MW foe UNLV on Friday... The Aztecs are 4-3-1 all-time vs. ASU and won the last meeting, 2-0, in San Diego during the 2012 season... In Tempe, SDSU is 1-3 with its only win coming in 1998... In 2009, its last trip to ASU, the Aztecs fell in overtime, 2-1.