The last time San Diego State won a women’s soccer game was back on Sept. 18 against UC Riverside. Now 4-7-0, the Aztecs are riding a five-game losing streak.
However, in those five games, the Aztecs have played Santa Clara, USC, California, Pepperdine and Stanford?all good teams, and the Aztecs weren?t blown out in any of the contests, losing at most by two goals.
That in mind, the Utah soccer team starts its conference season this afternoon at the San Diego State University Sports Deck. The 6-3-0 Utes start their conference play on the road, where each of their three losses has occurred. All three of those defeats, however, were against ranked teams (Florida, Kentucky and Portland).
The Utes are excited to get conference play underway. They know that all of the games up to this point are meaningless if they are not able to win games in the conference.
The Utes have two conference games on the road this weekend, as they travel to UNLV to play the Rebels on Saturday night, after facing SDSU today.
The Aztecs of San Diego State have always been a good conference team. Last year, the Aztecs only had an 8-13-0 record, yet tied for second in the Mountain West Conference. Chuck Clegg, San Diego State’s coach, has had very favorable records against Mountain West powerhouses, like Brigham Young. BYU has only lost to two Mountain West teams, New Mexico (which only has beaten BYU once) and San Diego State. Not only that, but the Aztecs are the only Mountain West team to have a winning record against the Cougars, at 5-4.
Against Utah, the Aztecs are 2-4. Last year, the Utes downed San Diego State in Salt Lake City 2-0. The Aztecs will be looking for a little payback.
SDSU sophomore forward Kim Castellanos leads the Aztecs in goals scored, with seven. Castellanos is also among the league leaders in points, a combination of goals scored and assists given.
Fay deLeon, senior midfielder for San Diego State, is another player to watch for the Aztecs. DeLeon was First Team All Mountain West Conference last year and was tied for first in points with Castellanos.
Aztec senior goalkeeper Linnea Quiones played in 19 of San Diego State’s 27 games last year and recorded 64 saves. However, she did allow 32 goals, thus showing she can be scored on.
The Utes are on a roll. The team’s three-game homestand, in which it won all three games and allowed just one goal, gave the Utes great confidence going into conference play. They know they can score in a hurry when they need to. Despite the set-back at Portland, the Utes’ confidence is still high, and they feel good going into conference play.
If they can win their MWC games, the Utes will have a good chance to make the postseason for the first time in their history.