By Keanu Haghighi (@KeanuHaghighi):
Going into the 2017 season, the San Jose State women’s soccer team had championship aspirations. After finishing second in the Mountain West in 2016 and losing to San Diego State in the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament, the team had high expectations entering the year.
When non–conference play had started, it looked like the team had regressed and was not going to be able to compete at the level they did the previous year. SJSU dropped four of its first seven games of the season. After a 3-0 home loss to the No. 10 ranked Georgetown Hoyas, the Spartans started to turn their season around.
Following two non–conference wins over Cal Poly and St. Mary’s, the Spartans continued to roll, only losing one more game the entire regular season. Led by 2016 team MVP Dorthe Hoppius, the Spartans finished the season with a conference record of 9-1-1 as well as their first Mountain West regular season championship title of Mountain West conference regular season champions for the first time in program history. In addition, the team won 12 games, matching their highest total since 2010.
San Jose State entered the Mountain West tournament as the No.1 seed and a first round bye for the second consecutive year. A dramatic loss in penalty kicks to the No. 4 seeded UNLV Rebels put an end to the Spartans Mountain West championship hopes.
However, in an odd turn of events the Spartans dreams of clinching an NCAA Tournament bid were still alive after it was announced that they would have to play a makeup game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs as a result of both teams cancelling a game during the season due to Hurricane Harvey. The Spartans would go on to lose the game 1-0, putting an official end to their 2017 campaign.
The women’s soccer team now has to turn their attention to winning the Mountain West tournament in 2018. It’s going to be difficult task because they’re going to lose their team and points leader Dorthe Hoppius. However, the team has a good reason to be optimistic.
Players such as Jamilecxth Becerra and Darriel Franklin had breakout seasons and will be returning to the team in 2018. Becerra led the team in goals this year while Franklin finished in second in scoring. In addition, junior goalie Paige Simoneau will be returning after a stand out year where she established herself as the starting goalie and won the Mountain West player of the week award twice.
With the core of the team still in tact, it is fair to have high expectations for the women’s soccer team again come 2018.
