Photo courtesy of Nevada Athletics. Emily Rich dribbles the ball down the field. Rich also was named Mountain West Offensive and Co-Freshman player of the week.
Nevada women’s soccer started the first half of the game down 2-0 against San Diego State on Oct. 10 at home. Three key players had goals that pulled Nevada to victory against number three-ranked SDSU.
Freshman Denise Castro scored twice in the first half for SDSU. The first goal was at 19:36 and the second was at 28:08. Castro has been a big goal scorer since joining SDSU this year. She has scored eight goals in the 13 games played so far this season. This is her second highest scoring game after playing against the University of San Diego on Sept. 10, where she scored three goals.
Junior Luz Arreaga scored the first goal for Nevada five minutes into the second period. Not only did this goal get some energy into the team to fight for more, but this was Arreaga’s first goal of her career.
Freshman Penny Murphy tied the game at 77:14 with a goal off of a penalty kick. Lauren Dicus of SDSU got the foul which led Murphy to get the penalty shot. The shot was hard on the ground, going right under the goalie. This was also Murphy’s first career goal.
With only two minutes left in the game, sophomore Olivia Fothergill scored the winning third goal for Nevada. Fothergill has had nine shots so far throughout the season, with four being shots on goal. This is her second career goal. Fothergill is even with her stats from last season having one goal. There are five more games left of conference play for a chance to improve her stats.
Emily Rich assisted both Arreaga and Fothergill. With a strong performance, Rich was named Mountain West Offensive and Co-Freshman player of the week.
Nevada will play at Colorado State University on Oct. 15. Nevada is seventh in the Mountain West bracket and has a current standing of 2-2-2. CSU is ninth with a current standing of 2-3-1.
Kelsey Middleton can be reached at kelseymiddleton@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @kelsmiddleunr