Nov. 3, 2008

LOGAN, Utah - ON THE PITCH-Utah State heads to Reno, Nev. for the WAC Tournament. This is the second time that the tournament has been held in Reno. The tournament was previously held in Reno in 2006 when the host Wolf Pack won the tournament.

WAC Tournament Notes in PDF Format

This is the first time that USU has been the top seed in the WAC Tournament. USU has won a school-record seven-straight matches. The Aggies will take on the winner of the quarterfinal match between No. 4 Boise State and No. 5 San Jose State. Last season, the Aggies defeated the Spartans, 4-0, in the quarterfinals. USU has never faced Boise State in the WAC Tournament. In the regular season, USU beat both San Jose State and Boise State on the road. The Aggies edged out the Spartans, 3-2, in San Jose, while shutting out the Broncos 2-0 in Boise. Utah State is 7-2 all-time against Boise State, while its stands 3-1-1 against San Jose State.

THE TEAMS -- NO. 1 UTAH STATE (12-7-1, 7-0-0 WAC) earned its first-ever WAC regular-season crown with a perfect 7-0 league record. The Aggies are led by senior striker Candice Clark  who is tied for first in WAC matches with nine points and four goals with San Jose State's Emmy Belding.

NO. 2 FRESNO STATE (9-8-2, 5-1-1 WAC) won the 2005 WAC title in Boise, Idaho with a 1-0 win over San Jose State. Head coach Steve Springthorpe earned the 2006 WAC Coach of the Year honor after the Bulldogs went 6-0-1. Offensively, Fresno State is led by senior Nicole Gutierrez who has three goals for six points in WAC matches. Goalkeeper Kaity Revel has allowed only one goal this season in a 1-0 loss to Utah State in Logan.

NO. 3 HAWAI`I (8-6-4, 4-2-1, WAC) is the defending WAC Tournament champions after defeating Fresno State, 1-0, in Boise, Idaho. With the win, the Rainbow Wahine advanced to their first NCAA Tournament. Senior forward Taryn Fukuroku is fourth in the WAC in points scored with 18 points off of six goals and six assists. Teammate Ambree Ako also has six goals for the Rainbow Wahine who have 35 goals. Head coach Pinsoom Tenzing is a two-time WAC Coach of the Year (2005 and 2007).

NO. 4 BOISE STATE (10-9-2, 3-3-1 WAC) was the second seed in last year's tournament in Boise. Head coach Steve Lucas earned WAC Coach of the Year honors in 2003. Last season, striker Shannon Saxton was named WAC Freshman of the Year. Saxton is second in the WAC in points scored with six goals and eight assists for 20 points.

NO. 5 SAN JOSE STATE (5-10-4, 2-4-1 WAC) captured the WAC Tournament in 2000 and is one of four different teams in this year's field to win title. Last season as the fifth seed, the Spartans fell to Utah State, 4-0 in the quarterfinals. San Jose State took the fifth seed over Nevada by beating the Wolf Pack in the regular season. Junior forward Emmy Belding is tied for first in WAC matches with USU forward Candice Clark with nine points NO. 6 NEVADA (2-13-3, 2-4-1 WAC) won the 2006 WAC Tournament on its home field Mackay Stadium. The Wolf Pack host the tournament for the second time in three years. Nevada's two wins came against Hawai`i and Idaho.

WAC CHAMPIONS-With road wins against Hawai`i, San Jose State and Louisiana Tech to end the regular season, the Aggies captured their first ever WAC regular-season champions and earned the top seed in the WAC Tournament in Reno, Nev. As the WAC champions, the Aggies are the No. 1 seed in the tournament, thus earning a first-round bye.

LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN-With its win over Louisiana Tech, 1-0, on Oct. 31, Utah State completed its perfect 7-0 conference season. The Aggies became the first team since Southern Methodist in 2001 to win all its conference matches. SMU was 8-0-0 that season to capture the WAC title. USU is the fourth team to win all of its WAC matches, including SMU in 1997 (6-0-0), San Diego State in 1998 (6-0-0), and SMU again in 2001 (8-0-0). In 2006, both Fresno State (6-0-1) and Utah State (5-0-2) finished conference play with out losses but did not win all of there matches.

GAMETRACKER-Fans can follow all the Aggie home games through the USU web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com via GameTracker, a free service, which updates play-by-play and statistics throughout the game. Live Stats are also available for all WAC Tournament matches by going to www.nevadawolfpack.com

ON THE WEB-The WAC, in conjunction with its Web site partner JumpTV Sports, has announced it will stream all of the matches of the 2008 WAC Soccer Tournament. Viewers can sign up by visiting www.WAC.tv. All five matches can be seen on WAC.tv by accessing the soccer tournament package for a one-time price of $10.95. More information and how to subscribe to these video streaming events can be found at www.WAC.tv .

WAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY-The last three seasons the Aggies have lost to eventual WAC Tournament champion. Last season, USU won its first WAC Tournament match with a dominating, 4-0, win over San Jose State. In the semifinals, USU lost a heartbreaking, 1-0, match to eventual champion Hawai`i in double overtime. In 2006, host and eventual champion Nevada defeated the Aggies, 2-0. In USU's first WAC Tournament in 2005, the Aggies fell to Fresno State, 2-1 in Boise.

Utah State in the WAC Tournament 2005 ­- (5) Fresno State def. (4) Utah State, 2-1 2006 - (3) Nevada def. (2) Utah State, 2-0 2007 - (4) Utah State def. (5) San Jose State, 4-0 (1) Hawai`i def. (4) Utah State, 1-0 (2OT)

SPREADING THE WEALTH-The Aggies have had several players involved in scoring this season. Only four players have scored at least three goals, Lauren Hansen (7), Erin Salmon (3), Candice Clark (5) and Shantel Flanary (5). Eleven different players have had an assist and three different players have three or more, Lindsey Smart (6), Lauren Hansen (3) and Sydne Porter (3).

ALL GROWN UP-Utah State's "baby Aggies" seem to have all grown up. Against Idaho, all four goals were scored by freshmen. Shantel Flanary scored her third and fourth goals, respectively. Summer Tillotson scored the game winning goal which was her second game winner of the season, and Marissa Sanchez scored her first collegiate goal. Five different newcomers have scored a point for the Aggies this season. Chandra Salmon joined the scoring barrage with her first goal of the season against San Jose State on Oct. 26.

Home Sweet Home-Utah State closed out its home schedule with a 1-0 win over Fresno State on Oct. 19. The Aggies ended their home season 7-2-1, including a perfect 4-0-0 record in home WAC matches. Last season, USU was 5-3 at home and 3-1 at Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field in WAC matches.

FAB FIVE-There are only five Aggies that have played in every match this season: seniors Alyssa Lowry and Jessie Malaska, juniors Lindsey Smart and Sydne Porter and sophomore Stefani Shiozaki. . The tough as nails Lowry has played 1,784 minutes this season for the Aggies of the total 1,839 minutes possible this season. Lowry has not missed a start since her freshman season. In WAC matches, there are nine players who have started every match led by Griffin and Lowry who have both played over 620 of the 630 minutes of conference match time this season.

SMART BECOMES ALL-TIME ASSIST LEADER-Junior Lindsey Smart had a stellar match against San Jose State on Oct. 26. She ended the match with a hat trick of sorts. With the three assists, Smart broke the Aggie all-time record for assists with 13. She added an assist in USU's final match of the regular season for 14 career assists.

STELLAR STRIKERS-With three goals in the last four matches, senior forward Candice Clark is also rising the charts. Clark tied Aggie-great Charity Weston for sixth all-time in career goals with 14. Sophomore forward Lauren Hansen is tied for fifth all time in points scored with 37. Hansen is also fourth in goals scored with 17.

GRIFFIN MAKES HISTORY-Senior goalkeeper Ali Griffin became the all-time leader in minutes in net with 5,346.36. She became the all-time saves leader passing Megan Mills (2001-04) who had 5,196 minutes. She is second in saves behind all-time saves leader Mills who had 273 saves. Griffin currently has 230 saves. Griffin is also still first in shutouts with 20 after five shutouts this season.

AGAINST THE GEM STATE-The Aggies are 21-7 against teams from the Gem State, including Boise State, Idaho and Idaho State. Utah State is 5-4 against the Bengals, having already lost to ISU 2-1 in overtime to open the 2008 season. The Aggies defeated both Idaho and Boise State last week. Utah State now holds a 6-3 record against the Broncos. Last season, the Aggies fell to the Broncos, 2-1 in Logan. Utah State had won the two previous meeting before. USU holds an impressive 9-1 record against the Vandals, including all three meetings since joining the WAC in 2005. The Aggies only loss to Idaho came in the Big West Tournament in 2002 when the Vandals captured a 3-2 double overtime victory.

AGGIE INFORMATION-Sophomore Lauren Hansen leads the team in points scored with 17 off of six goals and three assists... Junior Andrea Seledee scored her first goal as an Aggie in USU's 1-0 win over Fresno State... Freshman Marissa scored her first collegiate goal in the Aggies win over Idaho and added a second goal in the 4-3 win over Nevada... Freshman midfielder Chandra Salmon earned her first collegiate point with an assist in the win against UTEP and her first goal against San Jose State... Freshman defender Summer Tillotson scored her first collegiate goal off a penalty kick in the Aggies' win over Wyoming on Sept. 28... Her brother was a member of the Utah State basketball team, while her dad played football for the Aggies

FISHY SITUATION-Things are getting awfully fishy for the Aggies. Junior Erin Salmon scored the first goal of the season for Utah State off the dish from sophomore Heather Pond. To add to the underwater element, freshman midfielder Chandra Salmon has now started 19 of the Aggies first 20 matches. Both Salmon's had a fin so to speak in the Aggies, 2-1, win over UTEP. Erin Salmon scored the game-winning goal for her second goal of the season. Chandra Salmon had her first collegiate assist with her pass to Lauren Hansen to tie the score 1-1. Erin Salmon proved once again to be one of the fastest in the pond by scoring her third goal of the season in the Aggies' win over Wyoming. Against San Jose State, the aquatic duo of Chandra Salmon and Heather Pond were both in action scoring their first goals of the season.

THE COACH-Entering her sixth season at Utah State is Heather Cairns, who became the winningest coach in school history after recording her 27th career victory on Sept. 30, 2006, defeating Eastern Washington 1-0. In her five plus seasons at the helm of the Aggies, Cairns has compiled a 55-53-10 record passing former head coach Stacy Enos (1996-2000) who went 26-59 (.306) in five seasons with the Aggies. Cairns' teams have also recorded a school record 43 shutouts in the last six seasons. USU recorded a total of just 16 shutouts in the six years prior to Cairns' appointment as head coach.

NOTHING BUT ZEROES-There have been 13 shutouts in Utah State matches this season. Senior goalkeeper Ali Griffin has six shutouts this season, including the 0-0 tie against Texas State. The Aggies also have a team shutout in the 4-0 win over Idaho when Griffin and senior Lisa Willardson both saw action. In turn, the Aggies have been shut out six times: three at home (Texas State, BYU and Long Beach State) and three on the road (Oregon , Utah and Cal Poly).

WACTASTIC-Utah State played 11 teams this season who are currently or have been members of the Western Athletic Conference. Utah, Wyoming and BYU were members of the WAC through 1998. UTEP was a WAC school through the 2004-05 school year. USU will also take on the seven WAC schools that sponsor women's soccer (Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai`i, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada and San Jose State). So far this season, the Aggies are 9-2 against former or current WAC teams with wins over UTEP and Wyoming and losses to Utah and BYU, and a 6-0 record against current WAC teams (Idaho, Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State).

Aggie Algebra

1-The total number of collegiate assists that goalkeeper Ali Griffin has after assisting on Shantel Flanary's first goal in the win against Seattle on Aug. 24.

2-Where sophomore Lauren Hansen stands in the WAC in goals scored with seven.

3-The number of assists that junior Lindsey Smart had in the Aggies win against San Jose State.

4-The number of WAC Tournaments that the Aggies have qualified for.

5-The number of starters to have played in every match (Lindsey Smart, Stefani Shiozaki, Sydne Porter, Alyssa Lowry and Jessie Malaska).

7-The number of season-high saves that Ali Griffin had against BYU on Oct. 2.

9-The number of brothers and sisters Aggie freshman Shantel Flanary has.

10A-The number of freshmen the young Aggie team has on the roster this season.

10B-The number of Aggies that have an assist this season, including three newcomers (Summer Tillotson, Andrea Seledee and Chandra Salmon).

12-The school-record number of wins that USU has this season.

19-Players from the state of Utah on the roster.

37-Total number of career points by sophomore Lauren Hansen which makes her tied for fifth on the all-time Aggie list with Dana Peart (2004-07).

80-The total number of points that the Aggies have scored this season off of 29 goals and 22 assists.

5,347-Career minutes Griffin has at goalkeeper to rank first on the career minutes list just passing Megan Mills (2001-04) who logged 5,196 minutes.