By Marissa Scott
Coming off of a Mountain West regular season championship title for the first time in program history and finishing 9-1-1, the San Jose State women’s soccer team has high hopes for its 2018 season.
Although last season didn’t get off to a hot start for the Spartans as they dropped four of their first seven non-conference games, the season turned around during conference play.
The team only lost one of its 11 conference games and finished with 12 wins on the season, the most since 2010.
In a dramatic penalty-kick loss to New Mexico in the MW championship tournament, the Spartans put an end to their record-breaking season.
But this season, the pressure is on to go even further.
Last season, the Spartans were led by 2016 team MVP Dorthe Hoppius, who scored five goals and had five assists. Although Hoppius will not rejoin the team for the 2018 season, there were a couple of players who had breakout seasons.
Junior Jamilecxth Becerra was named 2017 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year after scoring a team-high seven goals, five of which were game-winning.
Senior Darriell Franklin, who was named Mountain West defensive player of the year and to the All-MW first team, will play her final season as a Spartan.
In the 2017 season, she played a huge role in the seven Spartan shutouts and scored a game-winning goal in New Mexico that was featured on ESPNW’s top-10 plays.
The junior and senior pair finished first and second in scoring, respectively.
The Spartans found a permanent home for senior Paige Simoneau, who made 53 saves in the goal and finished with a 11-3-2 record last season. The Corona native won Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week twice and finished the season with a 74.6 save percentage.
Coach Lauren Hanson, who has had played a major role in the success of the women’s soccer team over the last four season, agreed to a five-year extension over the off season.
Hanson has won two Mountain West Head Coach of the Year awards (2015, 2017), an NCAA Tournament appearance (2015) and two Mountain West titles (2015, 2017).
The team welcomes six freshmen to the team, comprising mainly of midfielders and defensemen. In the off season, there were no transfer students added to the roster.
“We look for players who have a lot of grit in this class because we knew we would lose that with our senior class,” Hanson told SJSU Athletics. “They definitely have a lot of grit, a lot of will, a lot of personality, it’s a very exciting class… and we look for them to bring that to San Jose State.”
With so many returns for the team and an incoming class of well-rounded freshmen, it is difficult to come up short coming off of a record-breaking season.
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