Women’s soccer stages second half rally for 2-1 win against Utah State

The Aztecs closed a four-game home stretch still holding the top spot in the Mountain West Conference

by Abigail Segoviano, Staff Writer • October 9, 2023

San Diego State forward Emma Gaines-Ramos drives possession against Utah State defender Kylie Olsen on Sunday, Oct. 8 at the SDSU Sports Deck. Gaines-Ramos scored her fifth goal of the season in the 2-1 Aztecs win.

San Diego State women’s soccer team closed out their two-week homestand with a 2-1 comeback win against the Utah State Aggies on Sunday afternoon.

“Ultimately, a lot of times conference, regular season and championships are won on Sundays,” Chassion Griggs, associate head coach, said. “We were able to get it done on Sunday after getting up from such an emotional game Thursday.”

The Aztecs (10-2-2, 5-0-1 Mountain West Conference) pressured the Aggies (7-7-1, 4-2-0) for the first 15 minutes of the first half, but slowly the Aggies found the rhythm. Both played great defensively in the first half and neither of the teams were able to score a goal.

The Aggies scored 24 seconds into the second half by forward Tess Werts with an assist by defender Alysia Butters.

After that goal, the Aztecs did not give up at all as forward Emma Gaines-Ramos scored the tying goal in the 63rd minute. Then in the 71st minute, midfielder Denise Castro scored the second goal for the Aztecs, which secured the win against the Aggies.

“I think we’ve learned to take one game at a time because I feel like we sometimes catch ourselves simply just thinking way ahead,” Castro said. “I feel like this year, we’re simply taking one game at a time, (and) we got one result so now we’re just preparing for the next one.”

As the Aztecs are still in first in the Mountain West Conference Standings, Castro mentioned where her mindset is at.

“It’s more pressure, but I feel like we’ve mentally prepared ourselves for this moment because we all want to win at the end of the day,” Castro said. “I feel like we’ve all done really good being there for each other, even after this game we got scored on first, I think we were all able to hold each other to be able to get this win.”

The Aztecs will be heading on the road to continue the Mountain West play against UNLV on Thursday, Oct. 12 and then at Nevada on Sunday, Oct. 15.

“Every single game in the Mountain West isn’t an easy game, so we’re going to have to go into UNLV and potentially deal with the heat in Vegas next Thursday,” Griggs said.

The Scarlet and Black will return home when they play against the Wyoming Cowgirls on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the SDSU Sports Deck.

“It’s all mentality, even if it’s an away game I feel like we got to just stay focused,” Castro said.

About the Contributors

Abigail Segoviano, '24-25 Mundo Azteca Editor

Originally from Richmond, California, Abigail Segoviano is a second-year student, majoring in Journalism with a minor in Spanish. This is Abigail’s second year at the Daily Aztec where she got the opportunity to expand her writing skills as a journalist. As a staff writer last year she had the opportunity to mainly cover the entire season of women’s volleyball and also covered a couple of games for women’s basketball. This year her main focus is to branch out and write for different sports. Additionally to get involved in other sections such as Multimedia and Mundo Azteca. Abigail is the Vice President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (SDSU Chapter). Abigail received an award from The Daily Aztec: “Consistent Contributor.” In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching sports, listening to music, and going on adventures with friends.

Christie Yeung, '24-25 News Editor

Born in Hong Kong, Christie Yeung is a first-generation transfer student who majors in journalism at San Diego State University. Prior to arriving at SDSU, she served as the Gaming/Tech Editor, Features Editor and Managing Editor of SAC Media at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California where she was placed in on-the-spot competitions such as fourth in News photo, second in Portrait photo, first in Sports photo, first in Social Media and second in News writing, along with a meritorious mention in the Enterprise News Story/Series category from Journalism Association of Community Colleges. She was also awarded second in Best Breaking News Stories by the California College Media Association. During her free time, she likes to watch European soccer games, read, listen to Cantonese-pop music and play video games and Dungeons & Dragons with her online friends. She also has a sweet tooth and cannot turn away anything with Nutella in it.