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Weekly MWC Women's Soccer Release #8
Regular season winds down as Conference Championship begins next week.
Oct. 27, 1999 Three Teams Share Inaugural MWC Regular Season Title: BYU, San Diego State and Utah have all been crowned co-champions of the first-ever Mountain West Conference women’s soccer season. BYU, SDSU and Utah all tied for first place in the conference standings with 5-1 records, but the Aztecs by virtue of the tie-breaker received the No. 1 seed in next week’s MWC Tournament. The Aztecs, Cougars and Utes each defeated each other in head-to-head competition. San Diego State won the point differential between the three teams by a plus-one margin. BYU will be the second seed, followed by Utah at No. 3 and Air Force at No. 4.
The final three seeds were decided by a drawing in the Mountain West Conference office. New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming all went 1-5 in league play, with the lone win coming against each other in head-to-head competition. Each team also had identical point differentials and lost to higher seeded conference opponents this season. The Rebels therefore by virtue of the draw were selected as the No. 5 seed, followed by the Lobos at No. 6 and the Cowgirls at No. 7.
Player of The Week: San Diego State senior midfielder Megan Mattes, of Redding, Conn. (Univ. of Vermont), has been selected the Mountain West Conference Women’s Soccer Player of the Week. Mattes netted a hat trick in the Aztecs 3-1 win over New Mexico and was a key defender in the 4-0 road victory at UNLV. The two wins this past week helped SDSU capture the co-championship in the inaurural season of Mountain West Conference women’s soccer. The Aztecs also secured the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament. SDSU tied for first place with BYU and Utah atop the conference standings at 5-1, and by virtue of the MWC tie-breaker rules captured the top seed.
Trailing 1-0 at New Mexico, Mattes tied the score with her first goal of the match at the 16:25 mark. She notched her second and the game-winning goal midway through the second half when she headed in a cross from midfileder Elicia Petre. Mattes completed the hat trick in the 77th minute as she scored her third goal of the match to help secure the Aztec 3-1 victory.
Against UNLV, Mattes was a key defender and helped keep the Rebels on their own half of the field the majority the match. UNLV managed just seven shots in the match and only three of those were on goal.
This is the first player of the week honor for Mattes this season and the third for the Aztecs.
National Rankings: BYU reentered the latest NSCAA poll at No. 23 after having dropped out last week. The Cougars can also be found in the Soccer Buzz poll this week as they moved up from No.18 to No. 19.
San Diego State climbed two spots in this week’s Soccer Buzz poll to No. 21.
Regional Rankings: BYU, San Diego State and Utah appear in the Soccer Buzz West Regional Rankings this week. All three teams remain in the same spot as last week with the Cougars at No. 6, the Aztecs at No. 7, and the Utes in the No. 10 spot.
National Statistics: BYU is No. 7 in the latest NCAA national statistics rankings in scoring offense. The Cougars have scored 64 goals for a 3.37 goals per game average. The 64 goals in 19 matches is the third highest goal total in the country through Oct. 24. The Cougars are also tied for 17th nationally in team defense. BYU has allowed 14 goals in its 19 contests for a 0.76 goals allowed average.
Individually, Wyoming junior goalkeeper Amanda Vandervort remains the lone MWC athlete to be ranked as she is No. 16 in the country in saves per game, averaging 8.31. In 16 matches, Vandervort has made 133 total saves.
Final Week of Regular Season Play: One week remains in the 1999 regular season. Nine matches are schedule for this final week. No. 23 BYU will close out its season at home with Long Beach State on Thursday. Friday’s action features Denver at Air Force and UNLV hosting Detroit-Mercy in the UNLV-FILA Tournament in Las Vegas. Saturday’s matchup’s will pit Long Beach State at Utah, while San Diego State travels to the Mississippi Tournament in Oxford, Miss., to face Kansas. On Sunday, the Aztecs will conclude their trip with a match against host Mississippi, UNLV will face either Portland State or Utah State in the FILA Tournament, Air Force plays cross-town rival Colorado College and Wyoming welcomes Eastern Washington to Laramie.
Balanced Attack: Seven BYU players are currently in double-figures in points scored this season. Senior forward Maren Hendershot leads the team 34 total points. Of the 184 points scored by the Cougars this season, 148 have been accounted for by these seven players, Hendershot (34), Sara Reading (26), Kim Lowe (23), Sarah Higham (22), Jeni Willardson (18), Natalyn Lewis (13) and Karen Robbins-Wonderli (12).
Hat Trick: San Diego State senior midfielder Megan Mattes recorded her first hat trick as an Aztec this past week vs. New Mexico. It was the third time in the short history of the MWC that an athlete has accomplished that feat. A list of conference hat tricks is below.
MWC Hat Tricks Team Player Opponent Date SDSU Kate Qually vs. Cincinnati Sept. 12 BYU Sara Reading vs. New Mexico Oct. 8 SDSU Megan Mattes at New Mexico Oct. 22
SDSU’s LaCoursiere Closes in on Another School Record: San Diego State senior forward Lori LaCoursiere is just one assists shy of breaking the SDSU single-season assist mark of 11 held by All-Amrican Catherine McGuire (1995-98).
If she breaks the single-season assists record this season, LaCoursiere would hold four San Diego State records. Earlier this season, she broke McGuire’s career mark for assists (40). She also owns the career records for goals (46) and total points (128) at SDSU.
Leading the Way: BYU’s Maren Hendershot is the league’s leading scorer with 34 points. Hendershot and Utah’s Amy Kofoed lead the Mountain West Conference in goals scored with 13. SDSU’s Lori LaCoursiere has taken the assists lead over teammate Fay DeLeon 10 to 9. In conference play, BYU’s Sara Reading is the points (15) and goal (7) leader. LaCoursiere and BYU’s Kim Lowe share the top spot in the assists category with four.
Stingy Goalkeepers: BYU, San Diego State and Utah have each allowed just two goals in MWC action. The Ute’s goalkeeper Courtney Hills leads the league with a .33 goals allowed average (minimum of five matches played) after allowing just two goals in six matches. The Cougars Jennifer Waldron and the Aztecs Katherine Judkins have also been solid in net with .42 and .43 GAA, respectively.
Offense of the Week: BYU had another solid performance by its offense this week as it tallied 11 goals in two matches. The Cougars defeated Wyoming 7-0 and Air Force 4-0. BYU fired a total of 75 shots to its opponents seven in the two matches. The seven goals vs. Wyoming tied the MWC record for goals by one team in an intraconference match, a mark BYU set just a week ago in a 7-0 win over UNLV.
Defense of the Week: BYU and San Diego State share this week’s defensive spotlight as both teams shutout their opponents. It was the Cougars fifth shutout in six conference matches, while the Aztecs posted their fourth shutout in six contests. BYU allowed a total of seven shots, while SDSU’s opponents managed just nine shots.
Home Sweet Home: Mountain West Conference teams have compiled a 37-19-1 home record thus far in the 1999 season. BYU remains the only undefeated team at home with a perfect 10-0 record. The last time BYU lost at home was on Nov. 7, 1998 to San Diego State (2-1 in ot) in the championship match of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Grand Fan Club:
Fairfield at New Mexico, Sept. 17 2,168 Washington at BYU, Sept. 24 2,079 Utah at BYU, Oct. 9 1,955 Cal Poly at BYU, Sept. 11 1,616 BYU at UNLV, Oct. 14 1,117 Weber State at BYU, Sept. 29 1,050
Conference Scoring: Mountain West Conference teams have a 27-goal scoring advantage over their nonconference opponents this season. League teams have scored 148 goals to the opponents’ 121. MWC teams have nine nonconference matches remaining this season.
BYU leads the way in scoring with a 3.37 goals per match average. San Diego State remains second with a 2.47 average followed by Utah (1.76), Air Force (1.41), New Mexico (1.32), UNLV (1.19), and Wyoming (.88).
1999 Mountain West Conference Championship
QUARTERFINALS Wednesday, November 3 Time #4 Air Force vs. #5 UNLV 9:00 a.m. #3 Utah vs. #6 New Mexico 11:30 a.m. #2 BYU vs. #7 Wyoming 2:00 p.m.
Requests for media credentials should be directed to San Diego State Assistant Director of Media Relations, Dave Kuhn at (619) 594-5547 or Mountain West Conference Assistant Director of Communications, Javan Hedlund at (719) 533-9511.
MWC vs. Nonconference Opponents: Mountain West Conference teams have a combined 42-34-3 (.564) record against nonconference opponents in 1999. The .564 win percentage is the highest of the year against nonconference opponents.
San Diego State Registers First MWC Win: On the first official day of competition as a member of the Mountain West Conference, the San Diego State women’s soccer team captured the first victory by any team in any sport for the conference. The Aztecs played UCSB in the first-ever sporting event in the Mountain West Conference on August 27, 1999 and won in style with a 5-1 win over the Gauchos.
Utah Wins Inaugural Intraconference Soccer Match: The Utah Utes won the first-ever Mountain West Intraconference match on Oct. 6, 1999 as they defeated New Mexico 1-0 in Salt Lake City. Senior forward Staci Burt scored the lone goal of the match, which also marked the first-ever goal in a league contest, at the 42:22 mark of the first half. The 1-0 win by the Utes was also the first-ever shutout in an intraconference match.
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