By Javier Velez— Staff Writer
San Jose State women’s soccer needs to put the Bulldogs in the dog pound if it wants to keep its Mountain West playoff hopes alive on Friday night for Senior Night.
Fresno State will not be a walk in the park for the Spartans.
In four out of their last five games, the Bulldogs have scored at least two goals in a game.
These two teams met in the quarterfinals in the 2018 Mountain West Conference Tournament, resulting in a 2-1 victory for the Spartans.
“[Carlie] James and I had really good games against Fresno last year,” said junior midfielder Darrian Reed. “We are really excited to come out to play and get that result we want.”
The Spartans are coming home after getting shut out on the road last Sunday, 3-0, against San Diego State.
Senior defender Carlie James believes their recent loss is a great learning lesson to get prepared for the do-or-die game waiting to happen on Friday.
“We wanted it so bad that our emotion and passion kinda consumed us to get a goal that we forgot to play ‘us,’” James said. “That is a huge lesson for us going into Friday’s game.”
The top-six seeds in the MWC qualify to participate in the tournament to represent the conference in the NCAA. The Spartans are currently the seventh seed with 14 points.
Mountain West Regulation 9.4.5 Tournament Seeding:
In the case of a tie between two teams in the final standings, position in the tournament bracket shall be determined as follows:
1. Comparison of head-to-head Conference matches among tied teams;
2. Comparison of goal differentials within Conference games(maximum of three goals)
As it stands before kickoff: Fresno State is the fourth seed with 17 points, New Mexico is the fifth seed with 16 points and Air Force is holding the last qualifying spot with 15 points.
Possible scenarios:
- If SJSU wins and the three teams ahead of them lose, they can be as high as a fourth seed
- If SJSU wins and Air Force ties/loses, they will qualify as a seed in the tournament
- If SJSU ties, they would need Air Force to lose as SJSU holds the tiebreaker
- If SJSU loses, they will not qualify for the Mountain West Conference Tournament for the first time since 2014.
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