San Diego State shocked the Southern California Trojans (8-5, 5-2 Pac-12 Conference) in Los Angeles in a thrilling 14-13 overtime win last Friday. It’s the first time in school history that the Aztecs beat the Trojans.
The final goal of the game was scored by senior midfielder Bailey Brown with just eight seconds left of the first overtime period. Brown was one of four Aztecs who scored hat tricks that afternoon, as she nabbed three goals and an assist.
The Aztecs (4-7, 0-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) were down 12-7 at the beginning of the second half, which marked the biggest deficit of the game. The Scarlet and Black went on a 6-1 run to tie up the score at 13 apiece with just over five minutes left of regulation.
Midfielders Emily Resnick and Caitlin Jones, along with redshirt senior attacker Lexi Tan were the other three Aztecs who earned hat tricks.
Head coach Kylee White said she is beyond proud of her team to forever cement themselves into SDSU history.
“It was an incredible team win for sure. It was exciting to get all the texts and calls and messages from the alumni,” White said.
After the game, White told her team that this was a team win because their sideline was loud and encouraging the entire time.
“The way that we played on Saturday was what we’ve been looking for,” White said. “There was just a sense of calm and composure when we played and we were very quick to move on from any mistake. We didn’t hold on to that.”
White also added the Aztecs kept the game simple and stayed connected throughout to pull off the historic win.
In comparison to the first game against the Trojans, White said the difference was sticking to the game plan.
“The first time we played we were following the game plan. We were in it and then we started to panic,” White said. “I was very deliberate in how we were breaking the game up. We were focusing on all the small things that we can control and just keeping them present at the moment that we were in.”
On the defensive end, redshirt senior goalkeeper Katy Sharretts shined once again, adding 14 more saves to put her career total at 519.
Following the big win over USC, the Aztecs fell in their first conference game of the season to UC Davis (8-4, 1-0 MPSF) 19-10.
White said it was a difficult game because of the emotional toll of a win that was 10 years in the making, two days prior.
“If I’m tired, they must be extra tired. We were sort of chasing a feeling instead of focusing on what we were doing that day,” White said.
The Aztecs couldn’t get off to a solid offensive start against the Aggies and were down 11-5 after the first half. Ultimately, the Scarlet and Black weren’t able to re-create another comeback win.
Despite the loss, Sharretts tacked on another 14 saves which pushed her to have the fifth-most career saves of all-time in MPSF history.
Sharretts now stands at 533 saves in her career with the Scarlet and Black and has the opportunity to continue moving up with two more regular season games and the MPSF Championship.
Up next…
SDSU plays the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon in what will be an emotional Senior Day game for White’s student-athletes.
White said all of her seniors have had an impact on the program all in their own way because they’re a different group of student-athletes.
“It’s going to be sad but it’s not the last game, so that’s a thing I will be focusing on is that it’s a game to recognize them,” White said. “Keeping our emotions intact and just playing hard on focusing what the day really is, just celebrating them and then getting the win.”
The Senior Day game will be played on April 17 and the opening draw is set for 12 p.m.
