SAN DIEGO – San Diego State's women's soccer team, after a tough trip to northern California last week, looks to bounce back on Thursday evening against Washington State on the SDSU Sports Deck.
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San Diego State (1-3-0) vs. Washington State (1-0-1)
Thursday, Sept. 2 | 7 p.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
Aztecs Notes
Returning home after a tough road trip to northern California, San Diego State looks to bounce back on Thursday evening against Washington State before hosting Long Beach State on Sunday night. Both games are scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. PT and will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
The series against Washington State began in 1991, but the last meeting was in 1996. The Aztecs and Cougars have played four times with SDSU owning a 3-1-0 advantage in the all-time series, including 3-1 & 1-0 victories in San Diego in the 1991 & 1993 seasons. The teams have not played since Sept. 20, 1996, in Pullman, Wash., a 2-1 win for the Cougars which ended the Aztecs three-game winning streak to open the series.
Alexa Madueno (So., GK, Woodland, Calif.) established a season and career-high when she recorded 15 saves in the team's game at No. 13 Stanford (8/29). The saves are the most since Aubree Southwick set the program record of 16 saves in a game at Oregon State on Sept. 19, 2010.
Through four matches this season, Alexa Madueno (So., GK, Woodland, Calif.) has recorded 32 saves, just three shy of her total of 35 saves in 11 contests last season. Averaging 8.0 saves per game so far, if you extrapolate that out to the team's 19 regular-season games, Madueno would total 152 saves, 46 more than the program's current single season record of 106 which was set by Aubree Southwick in the 2007 season.
Denise Castro (Fr., MF, San Ysidro, Calif.) enjoyed the best weekend of her, so far, abbreviated college career. In games at Saint Mary's (8/26) & No. 13 Stanford (8/29), she led the side with three shots, put all of them on frame, and scored the team's lone goal, the first as an Aztec, at Saint Mary's.
Laura Fuentes (Sr., MF, Newark, Calif.) has become the Aztecs iron lady, starting in all 54 games of her college career. Three other Aztecs Emma Gaines-Ramos (So., F, San Diego, Calif.), Alexa Madueno (So., GK, Woodland, Calif.) and Claire Watkins (Jr., D, San Diego, Calif.) are tied for the second-longest active consecutive start streak with 15. The 15 straight starting assignments for the trio cover their entire Aztec careers.
When head coach Mike Friesen put together this season's non-conference schedule, he knew it would be challenging, but here is the breakdown entering this week's action. The Aztecs eight non-conference opponents own a 20-5-2 record (.777), four of the eight are currently ranked or receiving votes in the national poll and every one of the eight programs has a .500 or better record.
After a victory in its first match of the season, the Aztecs have come out on the wrong end of its last three decisions. Since head coach Mike Friesen took control of the program in 2007, covering 289 games, this is just the fourth time that one of his team's last lost three straight. The program's longest losing streak in that time frame, four games, came at the opening of the 2016 season.
Head coach Mike Friesen's 159 victories (159-97-33) since the start of the 2007 season, the year he took over the program, are the most by any current coach in the MW and rank second in league history (Jennifer Rockwood, BYU, 190 victories). Colorado College's Geoff Bennett's 145 victories in the last 14 seasons ranks second among current MW head coaches.
Player Notes
Laura Fuentes (Sr., MF, Newark, Calif.), a 2020 United Soccer Coaches second-team All-Pacific Region and first-team All-MW performer leads the side with six shots & three points (No. T-8 in the MW). She is tied for the team lead with a goal and an assist and ranks second with five shots on goal. Fuentes has the lone goal in a 1-0 decision against Army West Point (8/19). The tally was the fourth PK of her career and her fourth game winner. She leads the side with 1.50 shots per game and is tied for the lead at 0.25 goals per game. She has never missed a contest and has earned a starting assignment in each of her 54 career games.
Denise Castro (Fr., MF, San Ysidro, Calif.) is one of two freshmen to have started all four games this season (also Sarah Funk). In 264 minutes, she has produced five shots, all five on frame which leads the team, and scored the first goal of her collegiate career in the team's 1-2 decision at Saint Mary's (8/26). She ranks second on the side with 1.25 shots per game and is tied for the lead at 0.25 goals per game.
Alexa Madueno (So., GK, Woodland, Calif.) played every minute of the team's first four games (360 minutes) and every minute of her college career (1,365 minutes). At No. 13 Stanford (8/29), she established a career-high with 15 saves, one shy of the program's all-time single game record, and faced more shots (44) against the Cardinal than any Aztec keeper in since the 2016 season (Penn State took 29 shots against the Aztecs on Sept. 9, 2016). Against Army West Point (8/19) she recorded the fourth clean sheet of her college career in a 1-0 decision. Madueno made four saves, three in the final 10 minutes to secure the Aztecs victory. At Saint Mary's (8/26) she recorded a then career-high 8 saves. So far this season, she is 1-3-0 with a 2.75 GAA and a .744 save percentage. She leads the MW in total saves (32), saves per game (8.0) and is fifth in save percentage. She went 8-3-0 last year, had a .714 save percentage (35-of-49) and surrendered 14 goals in 1,005 minutes (1.25 GAA). She was included on the Mountain West All-Newcomer team and was a second-team All-MW performer. Madueno is the first true freshman keeper to start every game in a season for SDSU since Aubree Southwick in 2007 and is the third keeper, and only true freshman, to play every minute in a season for the Aztecs since Stephanie Pearson in 2003. The only other keeper to start and play every minute in a season for San Diego State since 2003 was Brooke Lisowski in 2019.
Malia Kaleiohi (Sr., D, San Diego, Calif.) opted to utilize the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and tallied her first point of the year, an assist, at Saint Mary's (8/26). She has a goal and five assists in 47 career games. Her 288 minutes played so far this year is tied for the third most among field players and her four stats equals the second most of her career (earned 11 starting assignments in 2019).
Emma Gaines-Ramos (So., F, San Diego, Calif.) has tallied four shots, putting two on frame, in 237 minutes. Gaines-Ramos was a first-team All-Mountain West honoree last season after producing three assists in league play, the second most by an Aztec true freshman in the last five years. She has started all 15 games of her college career.
Claire Watkins (Jr., D, San Diego, Calif.) has started all 15 games since transferring from Oregon prior to the 2020 campaign. In 261 minutes this season, she has produced three shots. With the departure of four-year starting center defender Sarah Broacha, she, and fellow defender Kiera Utush (Jr., D, Rocklin, Calif.), have taken the reins as the program's center defenders.
Lauren Dicus (Sr., D, Danville, Calif.) earned the 38th starting assignment of her career against Pepperdine (8/22), a consecutive streak of 13 games, before missing the Saint Mary's match (8/26). Dicus took one shot against Army West Point (8/19) and her 58th minute attempt resulted in a hand ball in the AWP box which led to Fuentes' game winning PK. She has played 214 minutes in 2021.
Sarah Funk (Fr., F, El Cajon, Calif.) is one of two freshmen (also Denise Castro) to have started all four games this season. She produced one shot in her collegiate debut vs. Army West Point (8/19) and one at Stanford (8/29). Funk has played 262 minutes, second most among Aztec freshmen (Denise Castro has played 264 minutes).
In total, nine freshmen/newcomers have seen field time for the Aztecs this season. In addition to Castro and Funk, Trinity Coker (Fr., D, Poway, Calif.) has played 113 minutes in four games and attempted one shot (vs. Army West Point - 8/19). Hope Paredes (Fr., MF, Irvine, Calif.) has 134 minutes of field time in three games, including a start at Saint Mary's (8/26), and has produced three shots. Nicholette Palomo (Fr., F, Cerritos, Calif.), Alexys Ocampo (Fr., F/MF, Upland, Calif.), who has one shot, and Carlin Blake (MF, Overland Park, Kan.), have played 52, 107 and 158 minutes, respectively. Lily Davis (So., D, San Diego, Calif.), a transfer from Indiana, has played in three matches and a total of 119 minutes, and Olivia Sekimoto (So., MF/F, Chula Vista, Calif.), a transfer from American University, played 10 minutes in her lone appearance, at Saint Mary's (8/26).
At Saint Mary's (8/26), freshmen Denise Castro, Sarah Funk and Hope Paredes earned starting assignments. It marked nearly two years since San Diego State had three freshmen in the starting lineup. The last time the Aztecs started three freshmen was in the championship match of the 2019 Mountain West Tournament (Nov. 19, 2019) when then freshmen Kiera Utush (D, Rocklin, Calif.), Jessica Sanders (D, Belmont, Calif.) & Rachelle Elve (F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) earned starting assignments.
2020 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-Mountain West performer Anna Toohey (Sr., F, Winston-Salem, N.C.), has started three games, played 183 minutes, and produced one shot against Army West Point (8/19). She did not compete at No. 13 Stanford (8/29).
Rachelle Elve (Jr., F, Huntington Beach, Calif.) totaled 10 goals in 2019 & 2020, the highest total among returning Aztecs (Chloe Frisch, who graduated after the 2020 season, scored 11 goals in her last two campaigns). Elve returns this season as the Mountain West's top goal scorer in the last two seasons. At San Jose State (3/12/21), in the team's first foray away from home during the 2020 campaign, she tallied the program's 10th hat trick and the first since Aliyah Utush's trifecta vs. New Mexico on Nov. 4, 2017. Her first shot attempt this season, along with her first starting assignment, came at Stanford (8/29) and she has totaled 142 minutes in four matches.
Daniela Filipovic (Sr., MF, Laguna Hills, Calif.), who recorded the first point of her career on an assist last season, is back in 2021 having opted to utilize the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filipovic produced her first shot of the campaign in the Pepperdine game (8/22) and has 288 minutes.
-SDSU-
Aztecs Host Washington State Thursday Night
