Utah State soccer kicked off the Aggies sports season with a pair of games in Hawaii for the Outrigger Kickoff Tournament. USU dominated both games with a 4-0 beatdown of Pepperdine and 3-0 shutout of Hawaii. And on Monday afternoon, USU senior Kylie Olsen was named the Mountain West’s Defensive Player of the Week.
Olsen may be one of the defenders for USU, but she opened up the Aggies’ scoring for the season with a 22nd-minute goal against Pepperdine. Shortly after, junior midfielder Summer Diamond added her name to the scoring sheet in the 25th minute with Olsen getting an assist. In the second half, Tess Werts (56th minute) and Kaylie Chambers (68th minute) would add two more goals to secure the dominant victory.
Beating Pepperdine so handily comes as perhaps a bit of a surprise considering the Waves went 9-5-5 last season and were an NCAA Tournament team, ranking 44th in the final RPI (USU was 43rd). Pepperdine were picked to finish third in the WCC preseason poll. Despite those factors, Utah State utterly dominated the matchup, out-shooting Pepperdine 19-5 (8-3 in shots on goal) and dictating its will on the game.
Against Hawaii, the Aggies compacted all of their scoring to a three-minute span. In the 21st minute, Bizzy Arevalo scored with an assist from Werts. Less than 90 seconds later, Werts would score a goal of her own and in the 24th minutes Diamond would tally her second goal of the season. Utah State wouldn’t score after that flurry, but would go on to out-shoot Hawaii 21-6 (11-2 in shots on goal).
Ten different Aggies had a hand in a goal over the weekend, either by a goal and/or an assist, showcasing a balanced attack. Werts and Diamond led the way with their two goals each followed by one apiece from Olsen, Chambers and Arevalo. Olsen and Arevalo led the way in assists with two each. Werts, Alysia Butters, Ellie Hendrix, Whitney Lopez, Austin Miller all had one assist each.
Olsen’s one goal, two assists, and key role in two shutouts as part of USU’s back line, earned both the tournament MVP and Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week honors. It’s the first time Olsen has earned POTW honors.
Utah State tried out two different keepers in the two games with both obviously recording clean sheets in the shutout wins. USC-Upstate transfer Cora Brendle played all 90 minutes against Pepperdine and had three saves. Sophomore Shay Kercher-Pratt made her first appearance for USU by playing the full 90 against Hawaii and had two saves.
The Aggies’ season will resume on Sunday with a noon kickoff at home against Texas Tech. It will be the only home game during August and one of just two games at Bell Field during USU’s non-conference portion of the schedule.
