LOGAN, Utah — Utah State soccer (11-7-1, 8-2 MW) closed out the regular season portion of its 2023 home slate with a win Sunday afternoon, as the Aggies earned a 2-1 Senior Day win over Nevada at Chuck and Gloria Bell Field.
With its eighth win in Mountain West play, Utah State set a new program record for conference wins in a season. Prior to this year, the team had only reached seven league wins twice, most recently in 2016.
"I'm really proud of our performance, more and more we're reaching into the depth in our roster," said Utah State head coach
Manny Martins. "Our game-winner today was from a game-changer, and we had an assist from a game-changer. I'm really excited to see us in a place, going into the postseason, where we have our best performances in the past three or four games."
After a scoreless 45 minutes to open the game, it took the Aggies just over three minutes into the second half to break into the scoring column. A free kick from near the midfield stripe was taken by senior defender
Kelsey Kaufusi, who sent the ball all the way to the top of the box for the head of sophomore midfielder
Kaylie Chambers. Chambers then headed it forward to sophomore forward
Tess Werts for a left-footed rocket into the lower corner of the net to make it 1-0. This was Werts' third goal of the season.
The Aggie lead didn't last long, as Nevada's Eva Wees was able to sneak an equalizer past USU graduate keeper
Diera Walton in the 55th minute.
In the 72nd minute, it was a senior captain who produced the game-winner for Utah State on senior day. Forward
Nicole Hadlock-Hardy was on the receiving end of a perfect pass in the middle of the box, and then calmly delivered a shot past the Wolf Pack keeper for her second goal and second game-winner of the year. Junior forwards
Bizzy Arevalo and
Rine Yonaha were each credited with assists on the goal.
With the 2-1 lead in hand, Nevada was limited to just a single shot the rest of the way. In total, Utah State out-shot the Wolf Pack 18-10 with a 10-3 shot on goal advantage, and held them to just three shots in the final 45 minutes.
Utah State will now enter the final match of the regular season with the Mountain West regular season title and a first-round bye in the Mountain West Championship still in reach. The Aggies hit the road to face Boise State on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. The match will be streamed on Mountain West Network, with links to the live stream and stats available on utahstateaggies.com.
Fans can follow the Aggie soccer program on Twitter, @USUSoccer, on Facebook at /USUSoccer and on Instagram, @USUSoccer. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program on Twitter, @USUAthletics, Facebook at /USUAthletics and on Instagram, @USUAthletics.
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