San Diego State Women's Soccer racks up preseason accolades

The San Diego State woman’s soccer team landed five players on the College Madness preseason Mountain West all-conference team, the most of any team in the MWC.

Senior forwards Hannah Keane, Kelsey Booth, Haley Locker, junior midfielder Victoria Barba and junior goalkeeper Melanie Vaughn earned the preseason accolades for an Aztecs team that is coming off back-to-back regular season and MW conference tournament titles, and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

Keane, who was first-team all MW in 2013, led conference with 28 points and 12 goals last year, and  received first-team preseason honors along with fellow forward Booth. Booth set a career mark for assists last year (8), and was a first-team all-MW performer in 2013.

Locker, along with Barba and Vaughn, earned second-team honors in College Madness’ rankings. Locker’s eight points last season, two goals and three assists were tied for third on the Aztecs with Booth. They trailed only Keane and Barba--Barba notched a career-high 11 points last year, fourth best in the MW. Vaughn had an impressive season of her own, leading the MW with 10 shutouts, while making 81 stops.

The Aztecs made the NCAA tournament last year for the second year in a row, but were ousted by UCLA in the first round. SDSU is returning six starters from that team that went 13-7-2, while going 9-1 in conference, so they are again the favorite to win the MW.

SDSU will kick off their season with an exhibition game against Cal State Fullerton on Aug. 15 at 7:00 PM PST at the SDSU Sports Deck, while their first official game will be at SDSU as well, on Aug. 22 at 7:00PM PST  against Michigan State.