The moment has come for the San Diego State University women’s soccer team when it engages top-seeded Boise State Wednesday evening at the SDSU Sports Deck. At stake is a berth in Saturday’s Mountain West Conference tournament championship game.
The fourth-seeded Lady Aztecs moved into elite territory with a 3-1 victory over the fifth-seeded University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Sunday’s tournament quarterfinals. No. 3 Colorado State defeated No. 6 Nevada-Reno in Sunday’s earlier match to advance to meet second-seeded University of Utah in Wednesday’s other semifinal match-up.
The semifinal winners advance to Saturday’s MW championship game at 6 p.m. on the SDSU Sports Deck.
The Lady Aztecs entered Sunday’s opening round with some new-found momentum with a seven 0-game 4-0-3 run with home wins over San Jose State (2-1 on Oct. 17), Fresno State (4-0 on Oct. 20) and Colorado State (1-0 on Oct. 27), a road wins at Air Force (4-1 on Oct. 31) and ties against Colorado College (0-0 on Oct. 10), Air Force (2-2 on Oct. 13) and Wyoming (3-3 on Oct. 24).
SDSU’s contingent of South County players continued to rack up prestige points as Dori Savage (Mater Dei Catholic) earned MW Offensive Player of the Week award and Mia Lane (Eastlake) received honors as the Freshman of the Week for their play in the match at New Mexico in the regular season finale for the Red and Black.
Savage scored two goals against the Lady Lobos (14th and 84th minutes) while Lane scored her second goal of the season (and her career) to join Alexyz Nakamoto and Logan Nidy as the only SDSU freshmen to score multiple times in a season over the past three years.
Lane appeared in 27 minutes in the match and scored on her only shot attempt after taking a pass from teammate Carlin Blake on a free kick. Savage scored on both her shots.
SDSU finished regular season play 8-7-4, 6-2-3 in MW play while UNLV brought a 7-10-2 overall record, 5-5-1 in conference play, into Sunday’ tourney opener.
The Lady Aztecs wasted little time in making a statement with a goal in the second minute off a head shot by team leading scorer Denise Castro (San Ysidro). Trinity Coker took a corner kick
Kali Trevithick scored on a long looping chip shot from near midfield in the 15th minute to double the lead to 2-0. She intercepted a UNLV pass, ran the ball in and lofted a shot over Lady Rebels goalkeeper Hanne Breur.
The UNLV offense showed some life late in the first half. In the 36th minute Tori Martinez scored off passes from Torie Reardon and Alexa Buchanan to make it a 2-1 match.
SDSU ‘keeper Alexa Madueno made a save in the 42nd minute to keep her team in the lead heading into the interval.
While Castro scored 72 seconds into the match, Trevuthick scored 92 seconds into the second half to put the Lady Aztecs back on top by two goals. Emma Gaines-Ramos (Otay Ranch) supplied the assist.
Savage and Lane put shots on Breur in the 62nd and 70 minutes to keep the pressure on the Lady Rebels. Madueno, in kind, maintained the SDSU cushion with clutch saves in the 80th and 81st minutes.
Madueno was credited with three saves to extend her SDSU career record to 407 saves.
Castro’s goal was her 10th of the season to equal her career high, which she set last season. She moves into sole possession of third place in the program record book with 84 points. Her 35th career goal also places her third overall in SDSU program history, trailing second place holder Kim Castellanos by just one goal.
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Castro tops the Lady Aztecs with 23 points this season on 10 goals and three assists.
“I consider it a privilege to lead these women on the team,” Castro said. “I’ve managed to lead them through the hard work of the team.
“Our season has been up and down. But ever since Air Force, we’ve switched gears. We started giving it all we had. We’re ready for it now
“We’re back home where we feel no one can out-run us, out-score us, out-beat us.”
Gaines-Ramos remains in second place in team scoring this season with 20 points on six goals and eight assists.
“Just finally being at home has been a huge advantage for us,” she said. “We’re going into the semis with momentum on our side.”
Boise State (8-1-2 in regular season MW play) defeated visiting SDSU, 2-0, on Oct. 6.
“We feel we can reverse that score playing at home,” Gaines-Ramos said.
The home field advantage proved fortuitous indeed as the Lady Aztecs shocked the top-seeded Lady Broncos with the first goal for a 1-0 halftime lead Wednesday night in a high-spirited match.
Utah State, playing suffocating defense, ended Colorado State’s season with a 2-0 victory in Wednesday’s early game.
