Lady Aztecs take down Lady Rams with tropical storm

Tropical storm Rachel passed through the San Diego region over the weekend with lots of overdue rain. The worst seems to have been abated, however.

But the visiting Colorado State women’s soccer team ran into a storm generated by SDSU’s Victoria Miller on Sunday. While the afternoon match dodged any more rain, Miller produced a three-goal hat trick to lift the Lady Aztecs to a 3-1 Pac-12 win.

Miller’s hat trick was the 13th in school history but the first since the 2020-21 season.

“I’ve had a brace before (two goals in a match), but never a hat trick,” said Miller, who scored goals in the 62nd, 64th and 67th minutes to rescue SDSU from a 1-0 deficit.

The Lady Aztecs, building on their second consecutive Pac-12 victory, improved to 2-1-1 in conference play, 8-3-2 overall. The Lady Rams saw their record dip to 2-2-0 in Pac-12 play, 3-9-2 overall.

Colorado State looked the better of the two teams in the first half, controlling play for a 30-minute chunk of the opening 45 minutes. The pitch was still wet from overnight rains and footing was not the greatest for both teams, limiting scoring chances.

The field slowly dried out to create better scoring opportunities as the match progressed.

The visitors took a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick by Avery Boulom 12 minutes into the second half.

Tropical storm Victoria struck for her first goal at the 62-minute mark, assisted by K.K. Chowana-Bandhu and Alexis Leath (West Hills). Leath dribbled into the goal box and passed to Chowana-Bandhu, who redirected the ball to Miller, who fired into the left side of the net to tie the game.

The goal opened a floodgate of shots by the hosts.

The Lady Aztecs took a 2-1 lead just two minutes later on a penalty kick by Miller. Colorado State goalkeeper Addison Huber dove to her right but Miller slotted her shot to the opposite post.

The Lady Aztecs closed out scoring in the match in the 67th minute as Miller took a pass from Karoline Lundstrom and placed a precision shot under the Colorado State keeper to the left corner.

SDSU put the game away with three goals in a whirlwind five-minute span.

“It goes back to our resilience,” said Miller, a junior forward from Novi, Mich., of the team’s turnaround in fortune. “We spent a lot of time in team bonding and just working on our team mentality. We knew coming into Pac-12 that it would be a competitive conference. Coming in and having that resilience, the game is never over.

“We tried to stick to the script, trusting in our coaches, trusting in each other. I think we came out in the second half and really leaned on each other, this is what everyone is good at, this is everyone’s individual brilliancies, and things would work out.

“I was focusing on ball movement, getting in the right place at the right time.”

Miller, a member of the 2025 Mountain West All-Newcomer Team, had previously scored on a penalty kick in a 4-1 loss to visiting Boise State on Oct. 1 to kick off Pac-12 play.

“I love taking them,” she said. “I never have any doubts in taking them when I go up there to the spot.”

Lady Aztec goalkeeper Kailey Carlen (Chula Vista) made her first save of the match in the 63rd minute. Carlen kept her composure with two saves in a two-minute span to close out the victory — stopping shots by Shadia Valenzuela in the 85th minute and Breckyn Ferrell in the 86th minute.

SDSU out-shot the Lady Rams 15-7 and finished with an 8-2 edge in corner kicks and time of possession (58 to 42 percent).

Miller’s hat trick was the first by a Lady Aztec at home since Aliyah Utush against New Mexico on Nov. 4, 2017.

The Lady Aztecs have four conference matches remaining on their regular season schedule.The top four teams in the standings qualify for the conference championship tournament next month Nov. 11-14 at Utah State.

The win over the Lady Rams placed SDSU into third place — one point ahead of both Washington State and Colorado State. Five of the nine conference teams have 0.500 or better records.

SDSU sits two points behind Boise State (3-1 in Pac-12 play, 11-2-1 overall) and five points behind conference leader Utah State (4-0 in Pac-12 play, 11-2-2 overall).

No. 17 Utah State defeated Boise State, 1-0, on Sunday.

“We need to keep our mentality, keep our heads, focusing on practice every day, making sure we’re taking care of our bodies, our nutrition, our sleep, so that we can come into our last few conference games and just go at it, kill it and take it to the tournament,” Miller said.

SDSU now has a break before resuming Pac-12 play at Washington State on Oct. 22, at 4 p.m. PT. The Lady Aztecss host Fresno State on Oct. 25. All home matches on the SDSU Sports Deck have free admission, and streamed on the Pac-12 YouTube channel.

Pac-12 standings 
No. 17 Utah State defeated Boise State, 1-0, on Sunday to assume the lead in the Pac-12 standings. Utah State (11-2-2 overall) improved to 4-0 in conference play while Boise State (11-2-1 overall) dropped to 3-1 in conference play. SDSU follows in third place ahead of Washington State (5-4-3 overall, 2-1-0 in Pac-12) and Colorado State, Gonzaga (6-6-2 overall, 1-2 in Pac-12), Oregon State (1-9-4 overall, 0-1-2 in Pac-12), Texas State (7-3-3 overall, 0-2-1 in Pac-12) and Fresno State (1-12-2 overall, 0-4 in Pac-12).

Photo Gallery by Paul Martinez