The SDSU Sports Deck is located approximately 830 miles away from Logan, Utah, but a long road trip didn’t prevent the Aggies from making themselves right at home in the semifinals of the Mountain West Soccer Tournament. Defending champion Utah State, the No. 2 seed, dominated in all facets of the game en route to a 2-0 victory over No.
3 Colorado State on Wednesday evening in San Diego. It was a rematch of last year’s Mountain West championship game, won by the Aggies, 1-0. “In the end, we play for the joy of playing, we play for the opportunity to compete and all of it, but from Day 1 we wanted to be in a position to compete for championships, so every game, every training session is to give us the opportunity to get one step closer to it,” USU head coach Manny Martins said in a phone interview with The Herald Journal.
“Now, we’ve taken the last step in getting the opportunity to compete for a championship, so now we’ve earned two more training sessions and one more game. And we couldn’t be happier because this was always what we wanted to do.” It was tough sledding in the early going for the Aggies as they were held shotless until the 32nd minute.
However, true freshman Ellie Hendrix scored in stunning, brilliant fashion seven minutes later and it all all USU the rest of the way. How dominant were the Aggies? The final statistics spoke volumes as USU finished with a whopping 21-2 edge in shots, including a 11-1 advantage in shots on frame, plus earned 10 .