San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State women's soccer (6-11-1, 3-5-0 WAC) ended its regular season with its first back-to-back wins since August, after beating the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters 2-1 at Spartan Stadium Friday night.
"We dominated start to finish," said the Spartans' head coach Jeff Leightman. "We played great soccer and moved the ball very quickly. I am happy to send our seniors out with a win at home."
The Lady Techsters scored the match's first goal in the 25 minute. Brittany Beddow fired a shot at Zoe Makrigiannis and the ball slipped through the freshman goalkeeper's fingers for Beddow's sixth goal of the season.
But the Spartans returned from halftime looking to claw its way to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament. They dominated play in second half, quadrupling its shot total from the first 45 minutes of the match.
The Spartans' offensive prowess finally paid off at the 49-minute mark. Junior Megan Molina tapped the ball to classmate Amanda Heins, whose shot bounced off of Corina Brown's left post and in to the net for Heins's third goal of the season.
San Jose State continued to put pressure on the Lady Techsters' defense, and, 65 minutes in to the match, freshman Alyssa Montejo scooped up her own rebound and netted the game-winner. The goal was her second of the season.
"In this game, everyone worked really hard and gave it their all," Montejo said. "No one held back and we were on fire tonight. All season, the team has been working hard and we are finally getting the outcomes we want."
Said senior Helen Phan, "We had a lot of energy going in to Senior Night and I feel like everyone was playing for each other. We pushed with everything we had and finally got two goals in the net."
Makrigiannis (3-5-0) made just two saves in the match, while Brown (6-3-2) made six saves.
The Spartans outshot Louisiana Tech 15-to-seven, with senior Kelsey Lord taking four of those shots.
"The last couple of weeks, we have washed a bit of our self-doubt away," Leightman said. "We have more belief in ourselves, and the ball has gone in. We are playing at a very high level now, and are playing very good soccer, start to finish.
"Obviously, we need a lot of help on Sunday to get in to the Tournament. But hopefully, the stars will align and we will get to go to Utah State."
The Spartans travel to Logan, Utah for the WAC Tournament if UTSA loses its match against Texas State, and the University of Idaho loses or ties its match against New Mexico State on Sunday.