The San Diego State women’s soccer team continued its dominance over Mountain West opposition as it wore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas down and captured the 3-0 victory in Las Vegas last Sunday.
With the win the Aztecs currently hold a seven-game win streak and a perfect conference record at 6-0, which matches their best start to conference play since the 2012-13 season, when they ultimately went 21-2-1.
The first half between SDSU (11-2-1, 6-0 MW) and UNLV (7-6-1, 2-4 MW) was a defensive stalemate that saw neither side able to find the back of the net. This was the first time during their current win-streak that the Aztecs lost the shot battle (4-3) in the first half.
However, as the Aztec coaching staff has done repeatedly throughout this season, they made the proper adjustments that saw the offense explode in the second half with 11 shots.
SDSU finally broke the scoreless draw as the senior forward duo of Haley Locker and Hannah Keane connected in the 56th minute of the match. Locker took the ball down the right sideline and found Keane in front of the near post. With just one touch, Keane was able to rifle one in the top corner.
Keane was not done for the Aztecs; just four minutes later, she took a throw into the end line and found her streaking freshman counterpart, Aliyah Utush, in the goalie’s box who squeaked her shot by the UNLV goalie and into the lower right corner. This was Utush’s third goal of the season and first in the last month.
With a comfortable lead and to not be outdone by her fellow freshman, Angela Mitchell scored the final goal of the game in the 79th minute. She dribbled past the entire UNLV defense from 50 yards out with her blazing speed and took a shot from 12 yards out to the far left post.
The Aztecs finished the game with an edge in shots (14-7) and corner kicks (6-2), where the Aztecs did not allow the Rebels to a single attempt in the second half. This game was also the first time this season the Aztecs committed more fouls than their opposition (17-13).
Throughout its current seven-game win streak, SDSU has annihilated its competition by outshooting and outscoring opponents 137-38 and 22-5, respectively.
The Aztecs return to the SDSU Sports Deck at 7 p.m. on Friday for a three-game homestand where they will first face Utah State University.
