San Diego State women’s soccer was victorious against UNLV by a score of 1-0 on Friday night at the SDSU Sports Deck.
The win lifts SDSU to a 3-6-1 record on the year and 2-1-0 in Mountain West Conference play, which puts the Aztecs tied in second place in the conference.
After what the team felt was a “turning point” in a win against Colorado State on Sunday, Friday’s game against UNLV only proved that point further.
The game started off with back and forth effort between the Aztecs and Rebels, with each team taking a shot on goal in the first 15 minutes.
The Rebels would go on to assert themselves in the first half, taking a total of eight shots as opposed to the Aztecs’ three.
UNLV gained its opportunities by way of the corner kick, earning nine in the first half while SDSU only managed to attempt one.
The second half got off to a much slower start, with only one shot coming from the Aztecs and none from the Rebels up until the 66th minute when UNLV finally got a shot off.
That shot seemed to be a spark that lit an offensive fuse for both teams, as SDSU came back with a shot of its own just three minutes later.
It wasn’t until the 74th minute, however, when the Aztecs finally found the back of the net.
Senior forward Darcy Weiser, who made her season debut against Wyoming just two games ago, scored after UNLV sophomore goalkeeper Emberly Sevilla lost the ball in the box, which Weiser took advantage of.
The goal is already Weiser’s second of the year in just her third game of action.
“I just took my chance, Weiser said. “If I missed it, I would have been pissed at myself, so I just got it right in the goal.”
That goal would prove to be the game winner for SDSU’s second consecutive win.
Head coach Mike Friesen said his team could have played better but was happy to get the result.
“I don’t know if we had too much working tonight, but we got the result,” he said.
Defensively, SDSU had its second consecutive shutout – thanks in part to senior goalkeeper Brooke Lisowski’s three saves on the night.
“Honestly, I just feel like our defense as a whole is really working together, better communication than what it has been in the past,” Lisowski said.
While the defense got its job done allowing zero goals on Friday night, Friesen saw things that could be improved on.
Friesen said his defense had made some mental errors which led to set 12 corners for the Rebels.
“We had a ton of mental, tactical errors early that just led to a lot of chances for them in terms of creating set pieces, corners especially,” Friesen said.
The Aztecs’ next match will be at noon on Sunday Oct. 6th against Nevada at the SDSU Sports Deck.