The Utah women’s soccer team once again showed its resiliency Thursday on a cold night at Ute Field.
Utah hosted San Diego State and came out on the right side of a 4-1 victory.
“I thought that was a great response for our team tonight,” head coach Rich Manning said. “Tonight was another great example of that resiliency.”
The Utes took an early lead when Katie Reineke put the Utes ahead in the second minute with her first goal of the season.
The score remained unchanged until the 75th minute when SDSU sophomore Cat Walker leveled the score at one apiece. But that was all the damage the Aztecs would do.
Just two minutes later after Utah forward Lauren Hair was taken down inside SDSU’s penalty box, junior Kelly Isleib got the rebound off her own penalty kick for the eventual game winner. It was Isleib’s sixth goal on the season and her fourth game winner.
In the 80th minute Reineke struck again, this time set up by Isleib. The goal put the Utes up 3-1.
“It felt great to finally score,” Reineke said. “I have to credit Kelly (Isleib), she played two perfect balls into the box and set me up for an easy shot.”
Only two minutes later Mallory Mitamura put the icing on the cake for the Utes with her first career goal, putting Utah up 4-1.
“After losing last weekend everyone on our team was hungry to get a win,” Reineke said. “You could feel it in warmups, we were ready to play.”
Saturday night Utah will look to keep the ball rolling against UNLV.
Last year when UNLV and Utah met up in Las Vegas, the Utes hadn’t lost in nine games. The 2-2 draw against the Rebels extended Utah’s win streak to 10 games thanks to goals from ex-Ute Adele Letro and current senior Katie Reineke. The two teams met again in the 2007 conference tournament, only that time the Rebels came out on top 2-1, ending the Utah’s season. Reineke will again look to lead the Utes over the Rebels, only this year at home on Ute Field. UNLV is the reigning Mountain West Conference regular season champion and will look for the same success this year.
Rebel sophomore Ashleigh Shoughro will lead the UNLV attack against the Utes and was recognized as Mountain West Conference Co-Offensive player of the week on Monday. In her past two games, Shoughro has scored five points, with her one goal and three assists tally thus far. On the season, the UNLV forward has tallied seven goals on top of four assists, giving her 18 points through 2008.
The Utes’ offense will have the task of beating Rebels goalkeeper Alicia Lugo, who has seen the majority of the action for UNLV. On the year Lugo has allowed only nine goals, while being credited with 37 saves.
UNLV and Utah get under way Saturday night at Ute field, kick off is set for 7p.m. Utah has not lost to the Rebels in the regular season since 2004.
