Aggie Soccer Drops Mountain West Opener to Nevada, 2-0, Friday

RENO, Nev. — Utah State soccer lost its first-ever Mountain West Conference match, 2-0, to Nevada Friday at Mackay Stadium in Reno.

Utah State is now 4-4-2 this season, having lost its last three matches, and 0-1 in Mountain West Conference action. Nevada improves to 3-4-3 overall and 1-0 in MW play. With the loss, the Aggies fall to 8-9-1 in conference openers. USU is also 3-6-1 in road conference openers.

“We are playing better soccer and that is the thing that we need to take away from this. We also need to take away that the Mountain West Conference is a tough conference, and the margin of error between victory and defeat is very tight,” USU head coach Heather Cairns said.

The Aggies scoring drought continued as USU hasn’t scored in its last four matches.

The Wolf Pack started as the aggressor with two corner kicks in the first four minutes of the match. Chrisalyn Fonte earned the match’s first shot on goal that was easily brought in by sophomore goalkeeper Jeannie Woller in the 12th minute.

In the 20th minute, sophomore midfielder Maris Hamblin had the Aggies’ first shot on frame. Nevada goalkeeper Kelsey Quintos was able to make the save on the play.

Just before halftime, junior midfielder Kylie Dibb applied pressure to the Wolf Pack defense. Dibb’s shot forced Quintos to dive to her right to make the save.

The half ended with neither team finding the back of the net. The Wolf Pack out-shot the Aggies 4-3 in the first 45 minutes, but all three of the Aggies’ shots were on goal. Quintos made three saves in the first half compared to one by Woller.

The Aggie attack came to life in the second half. Senior midfielder Shay Haddow took a shot off of a free kick by junior defender Taryn Rose in the 68th minute. Less than a minute later, Hamblin had her second shot on goal to test the Wolf Pack.

Nevada scored its first goal of the match in the 78th minute when Madison Lorenzen scored her first goal of the season. The Wolf Pack added an insurance goal when Bobby Reilly scored her second goal of the season, getting the ball through the USU defense and slipping the ball past Woller to give Nevada the 2-0 lead with less than four minutes remaining.

For the match, both teams fired off eight shots. The Aggies had seven shots on goal, while the Wolf Pack had three. Nevada’s Quintos made seven saves, while Woller made one save.

Utah State remains on the road and in the Silver State. The Aggies will now travel to UNLV on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. (MT).

Live stats will be available through the “GameTracker” link at www.UtahStateAggies.com, the official web site of USU Athletics. There will also be video streaming available through the Mountain West Network. Fans can watch the matches by going to the “Watch Live” link on the front page of the USU web site.

Fans can follow USU soccer at http://twitter.com/USUsoccer and Utah State athletics at http://twitter.com/USUAthletics. Fans can also follow Aggies soccer on Instagram at http://instagram.com/USUsoccer.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!