As the Mountain West regular season came to a conclusion last Saturday, the San Diego State women’s soccer team began preparing for the Mountain West Conference Championship, scheduled for Nov. 2-6 in Albuquerque, N.M.
“The goal each year is to win a Mountain West Conference tournament,” head coach Mike Friesen said.
SDSU, which rounded out the regular season in second place with a 4-1-1 league record and 10-6-3 overall behind New Mexico clenched the second seed in the tournament after defeating UNLV, 2-1, in a double-overtime match on Friday.
“We’re taking it one game at a time. We are playing well late in the season so I’m confident,” Friesen said.
While New Mexico and SDSU notched the top two seeds, Wyoming earned the third seed, followed by fourth-seeded UNLV and fifth-seeded Boise State. TCU locked up the sixth and final spot in the MW Championship tournament after defeating Air Force 2-1 on Oct. 14 to determine the head-to-head tiebreaker.
“I think it’s between us and New Mexico this year. It’s an even matchup. They have an edge playing on their home turf but I think it will be a good game to watch,” Friesen said.
Because of the Aztecs’ outstanding league performance, they have earned a bye in the first round of tournament play and automatically advance into the semifinals.
SDSU will play its first match at noon MT Friday against the winner of the first-round game between Wyoming and TCU.
Last year, the third-seeded Aztecs advanced to the tournament semifinals after shutting out Wyoming 4-0 in the quarterfinal round. Unfortunately, they were unable to advance any further losing 2-0 against No. 18 BYU.
“Our format has changed a lot this year from last. The bye gives us a day to rest and since we don’t have a quarterfinal match, we don’t have to show up as early as the other teams do,” Friesen said.
The Mountain West Women’s Soccer Championship match is set for noon MT on Sunday. The winner will receive an automatic bid into the 2011 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championships.
“It’s ultimately going to be a team effort to win the conference tournament,” Friesen said.
