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Reigning MW Champion Spartans Open 2023 Season Against No. 19 Santa Clara, UCSB

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The San José State women's soccer team (0-0, 0-0 Mountain West) will head to No. 19 Santa Clara (0-0, 0-0 WCC) on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff before hosting their home opener against UC Santa Barbara (0-0, 0-0 Big West) at 12 p.m. on Sunday.

  • The Spartans are coming off an incredibly successful season in 2022. They won the Mountain West regular-season title, the Mountain West Championship and made their third appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2015.
  • The Spartans did not concede a goal across three matches (310 minutes) in the 2022 Mountain West Championship.
  • Four 2022 All-Mountain West honorees return for 2023: Bente Pernot (Second Team and Newcomer Team), Bella Flocchini (Second Team), Sabrina Weinman (Second Team) and Tatiana Cunningham (Newcomer Team). Pernot was also named the 2022 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year and the Mountain West Championship MVP.

WHAT'S NEW

  • The Spartans have several newcomers, including three transfers and seven freshmen.
  • Transfers: 
    • Kennedy Mayo, a junior forward from Arizona State
    • Tasia Kravitz, a graduate student defender from the University of Washington
    • Keely Brown, a sophomore defender from the University of Pittsburgh
  • Freshmen: Ava Bynes, Kyah Coady, Drew Novaes, Sophia Memory, Nikayla Sullivan, Hope Northrup, and Bailey Moseley
  • The Spartans also have a new assistant coach, Paige Simoneau. Simoneau played for SJSU from 2015-2018 as a goalkeeper, helping lead the team to Mountain West Championship titles in 2015 and 2018. For both of those years, she was named the Mountain West Championship MVP. She is the school's all-time leader in career shutouts with 21.

RECORD WATCH

  • Pernot enters her sophomore season as the current all-time Spartans' leader in goals-against average at 0.89.
  • The former goalkeeper for the U14 and U17 Dutch National Team has recorded the seventh-most shutouts in Spartans' history with eight. She is one shutout away from tying Meghan Maiwald (2010-11) and Adrienne Herbst (2003-05) who each recorded nine clean sheets.

VS. SANTA CLARA

  • In 2022, the Santa Clara Broncos finished atop the West Coast Conference standings, won the conference tournament and made the NCAA Tournament where they lost in the second round to Notre Dame. The Broncos finished the season with a record of 7-11-3.
  • The last time the Spartans and Broncos played each other was the Spartans opening match of 2022 which Santa Clara won 1-0.
  • In the match, Shayla Sugai led the Spartans with five saves and Kiana Miyazato fired off a team-high three shots.

VS. UC SANTA BARBARA

  • In 2022, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos registered a record of 5-9-6 and placed sixth in the Big West Conference. They fell in the first round of the Big West Championship to Long Beach State.
  • On Sept. 4, 2022, the Spartans and Gauchos played to a 2-2 draw.
  • In the match, Sugai recorded two saves while Flocchini and Cynthia Flores netted the goals and Weinman picked up an assist.

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