No. 2 Washington Opens Pac-12 Play With No. 13 San Diego State

No. 2 Washington (7-0-0) vs. No 13 San Diego State (6-0-2)
When: Thursday, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Husky Soccer Stadium 
Stream: Pac-12 Networks

SEATTLE -- After a perfect record through their opening slate of nonconference games, the No. 2 Washington Huskies welcome the arrival of conference play with No. 13 San Diego State coming to town on Thursday night. 

Match Notes 

• Washington opens up Pac-12 play this week when it hosts San Diego State on Thursday night.

• The Huskies and Aztecs are the only two Pac-12 teams ranked in both the TopDrawerSoccer and United Soccer Coaches Top 25 polls.

• Washington is 22-7-8 all-time against SDSU and had a seven-match winning streak before falling to the Aztecs by a score of 2-0 in their most recent meeting in March of 2021.

• The Huskies improved to 7-0 on the season last Thursday with a 2-0 win at Portland. Kendall Burks helped force a Pilots own goal and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi scored his first career goal to round out the scoring.

• UW racked up the weekly honors, as Kendall Burks was named Pac-12 Player of the Week and to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week, while Nick Scardina was named to the TopDrawerSoccer National Team of the Week.

• Washington's seven straight wins to start the season are the most for UW since it started the 2006 season with eight straight wins.

• UW received the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award last week after achieving a 3.53 team GPA in 2020-21.

• San Diego State is in the midst of a dramatic turnaround under second-year coach Ryan Hopkins, as the Aztecs are undefeated through eight matches (6-0-2) after going 1-7-2 last season.

• A familiar face will be in net for SDSU, as former Husky Jacob Castro is the starting goalkeeper for the Aztecs. He leads the nation in goals against average, save percentage and shutouts.

Team Notes

• Reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year Jamie Clark enters year 11 on the Washington touch line on heels of back-to-back appearances in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament

• The Huskies have had a winning record in all 10 of Clark's seasons and have had winning seasons in 11 straight years. UW has also had at least 12 wins in each of the last five seasons and in nine of Jamie Clark's 10 seasons as head coach.

• Washington was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 Preseason Poll, as voted on by the conference coaches, narrowly following first-place Stanford. The Huskies received two of the six available first pace votes.

• The Huskies bring back their top 13 players from the 2020 season in regard to minutes played. 

• The Huskies return eight All-Pac-12 honorees, highlighted by Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Charlie Ostrem. He was also named First Team All-Pac-12 along with Dylan Teves and Christian Soto.

• Teves was named First Team All-American last season by United Soccer Coaches, while Ostrem was named Third Team.

• Charlie Ostrem's 11 assists led the Pac-12 and were second in the country.

• Centerback duo Kendall Burks (3G/1A) and Ryan Sailor (4G) were both named Second Team All-Pac-12 and anchor a stout UW backline.

• Goalkeeper Sam Fowler was also named Second Team All-Pac-12. He set the Washington record for postseason shutouts with three. He has a 13 career shutouts in two seasons.

• Lucas Meek and Nick Scardina each slotted home 6 goals last season, tied for second on the team. Meek had two game-winning goals while Scardina had both a brace (vs. UCLA) and hattrick (vs. Northwest). 

• Gio Miglietti returns goal-scoring experience to UW, as he scored 3 last season and was named Honorable Mention All-Pac-12.