SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's soccer team plays its final regular-season game on Thursday against the New Mexico Lobos, with the chance to secure its spot in next week's Mountain West tournament.
NEXT UP
San Diego State (7-10-1, 5-4-1 MW) vs. New Mexico (12-4-1, 7-2-1 MW)
Thursday, Oct. 28 | 7 p.m. (PT) | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.
Mountain West Network / Live Stats
AZTEC NOTES
After a 0-3 decision against Colorado College on Sunday afternoon, San Diego State wraps up the 2021 regular season on Thursday night with a game versus New Mexico at 7 p.m. on the Sports Deck.
With one game left in the regular season, the Aztecs have several scenarios in which they can claim one of the three remaining spots in next week's Mountain West championship tournament. San Diego State's easiest way to secure its spot is to earn a victory or tie on Thursday night. The only scenario in which the Aztecs will not make the tournament is with a loss in its game and a San Jose State victory over Fresno State.
In his 15th campaign leading the Mountain West's most dominant women's soccer program, head coach Mike Friesen has guided his squad to ten Mountain West championships (five tournament and five regular season), and five NCAA Tournament appearances, each the most among any current league head coach. Now in his 15th season of conference play, Friesen has a 94-30-14 record. His 94 league victories are the most by any head coach in Mountain West history (the inaugural season of the MW was in 1999).
Sophomore keeper Alexa Madueno (So. GK, Woodland, Calif.) has earned two Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week honors this season. She entered this week leading the MW in shutouts (6) and saves per game (5.14) and is No. 2 in saves (72). Nationally, despite missing the last four games, she ranks No. 53, 68 and 87 in those categories, respectively.
Freshman striker Denise Castro (Fr., MF, San Ysidro, Calif.) leads the 2021 Aztecs with eight goals. Since the 2000 season, her eight tallies rank No. T-3 on the program's freshman goals list (a list of the top five is on the bottom of page 2). The San Diego State record for freshman scoring is shared by Leah Pruitt and Mia Root, who scored 10 goals in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
After battling to get healthy for most of the season, Anna Toohey (Sr., F. Winston-Salem, N.C.) may be returning to the form that earned her MW Newcomer of the Year last season. In the last six matches, Toohey has scored three times, including a pair of game winners, in overtime at UNLV (10/8) and vs. Air Force (10/21) and assisted on another at Nevada (10/10). The Winston-Salem, N.C., native leads the Aztecs with 3 assists and ranks second with 3 goals.
New Mexico and San Diego State have met 30 times since the series began in the 1993 season, and the Aztecs hold a 13-10-7 advantage in the all-time series. In games played on the Aztecs home field, San Diego State has posted a 6-4-1mark, including 5-4-1 on the Sports Deck. In the last matchup in San Diego, on Oct. 26, 2018, the Lobos came away with a 3-1 decision. In the SDSU home wins against New Mexico, the Aztecs have outscored the Lobos 13-3, but in its four losses has been beaten on the scoreboard 8-3. The Lobos have won the last three times they have visited America's Finest City and were last defeated by the Aztecs on The Mesa in 2012. (All-time series scores on pg. 5)
After posting a 2-6-0 record in the non-conference portion of its 2021 schedule, and now sitting at 7-10-1, the Aztecs slot in at No. 138 in this week's NCAA RPI rankings (Oct. 24). This week's opponent is No. 68 in the rankings.
Head coach Mike Friesen's 164 victories (165-104-34) since the start of the 2007 season, the year he took control of 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 149 victories in the last 14 seasons ranks second among current MW head coaches.
With the regular season coming to an end, note that the Aztecs have won nine of the last 16 MW trophies (regular season and tournament), all of which have come under the direction of head coach Mike Friesen. In total, the 15th-year head coach has guided San Diego State to ten conference titles, and San Diego State has earned 11 Mountain West titles since the conference's inception in 1999. SDSU was the regular season champions in 1999, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019. The program was the tournament champion in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017, and its five tournament titles are the most among current members of the league and the second best in the league's history (BYU, 7).
When head coach Mike Friesen put together this season's non-conference schedule, he knew it would be challenging, SDSU was just 2-6-0, but here is the breakdown after the end of the non-conference slate. When the Aztecs started the league season, its eight non-conference opponents owned a 45-17-6 record (.706), three of the eight were ranked in the top-10 (UCLA No. 3, Pepperdine No. 6 & Stanford No. 7), three are from what are considered Power-5 conferences, and all but one of the eight opponent's records was .500 or better.
-SDSU-
Aztecs Host Regular Season Finale On Thursday
