Vikings Head to California for Two-Match Road Trip Looking for Breakthrough

KICKOFF
The Portland State women's soccer team will follow up a trip to Las Vegas with a California road trip to California Baptist Thursday and San Diego State Sunday.

So, the Vikings are clearly living better than the rest of us.

But the road trip will be all the sweeter if the Vikings can find a breakthrough in their attack. While the Vikings showed improvements in the second half of their match at UNLV Sunday, they are still waiting for their first goal of the season after being shut out against Oregon (3-0) and UNLV (1-0) last week.

The Vikings pushed for a breakthrough against the Rebels. Held without a shot a goal through their first three halves of the season, they put six on the frame in the second 45 minutes Sunday while outshooting their opponents 9-to-5 in the period.

The Vikings have been varied in their attack even without a breakthrough. Fourteen different players have recorded the team's 18 shots so far this season. Four players – Ocean Rideout, Aliayha Saldana, Grace Sarabia and Sydney Spotts – have recorded two shots each while 10 different players have one shot each. In the second half against UNLV, the Vikings' six shots on goal came from six different players.

Defensively, Finley Crabtree has started the first two matches for the Vikings in goal. She ranks tied for fourth in the Big Sky with 3.0 saves per game, including five in 74 minutes against Oregon.

The Vikings will be more seasoned than their two opponents in California this week. Both California Baptist and San Diego State only played one match over the first week of the season. Both had success, though. California Baptist battled California to a 0-0 road draw, while San Diego State beat intra-city rival UC San Diego, 2-0.

Both teams are also entering new conferences this season. California Baptist jumped from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the Big West, while San Diego State jumped from the Mountain West to the newly reconstructed Pac-12 Conference.

California Baptist left the WAC with a tournament title in 2025, advancing to the NCAA tournament after winning a pair of penalty shootouts at the conference tournament. The Lancers returned fifth-year goalkeeper Mikayla O'Brien and senior forward/midfielder Anja Jestrovic off last year's team. Both made the All-WAC First Team last season, while O'Brien was named the WAC Goalkeeper of the Year. They continued their streak of accolades by making the Big West preseason coaches team.

Pac-12 coaches picked the Aztecs to finish fourth in the nine-team league before the start of the season. Lily Boudet, Kailey Carlen and Katie Senn all made the Preseason Impact List within the new Pac-12. Senn earned postseason honors from the Mountain West Conference last season, making the second team after leading the Aztecs in both points (12) and assists (8).

Carlen earned her first shutout of the season while Kendall Moore and Victoria Miller scored the two goals for the Aztecs in the team's 2-0 victory over UC San Diego last week. The Aztecs will play No. 12 Washington this Wednesday before facing the Vikings Sunday.

MATCH #1: PORTLAND STATE (0-2-0) vs. CALIFORNIA BAPTIST (0-0-1)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
DETAILS: Thursday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m., Riverside, Calif. (CBU Soccer Stadium)
SCOUTING CALIFORNIA BAPTIST:

The California Baptist Lancers played only one match last week, a 0-0 road draw with California last Wednesday. They held the Bears to only six shots in the match, though they only had three themselves.
The Lancers are in their first year in the Big West Conference, joining the league after winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in 2025 after placing second in the regular season.
Fifth-year goalkeeper Mikayla O'Brien and senior forward/midfielder Anja Jestrovic both made the Big West preseason coaches' team. O'Brien was the 2025 WAC Goalkeeper of the Year when she also made the All-WAC First Team alongside Jestrovic. Jestrovic earned first-team honors after totaling eight goals and eight assists last season.
Jestrovic led the Lancers with 24 points last season. They'll need to replace their next two highest scorers in Ava Westlund and Kaylee Hauck who ranked second and third on the team with 23 (9g, 5a) and 11 (4g, 3a) points, respectively.
The Lancers' shutout of the Bears last week means they rank tied for the Big West Conference lead in goals against average (0.00), save percentage (1.000) and shutout percentage (1.000).
The Lancers put two of their three shots on frame against the Bears, ranking them first in the Big West and 18th nationally with a .667 shot on goal percentage.

SERIES NOTES:

This will be the first-ever counting match between Portland State and California Baptist.

MATCH #2: PORTLAND STATE (0-2-0) vs. SAN DIEGO STATE (1-0-0)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
DETAILS: Sunday, Aug. 23, 3 p.m., San Diego, Calif. (SDSU Sports Deck)
SCOUTING SAN DIEGO STATE:

The San Diego State Aztecs won their season opener against UC San Diego, 2-0, last Wednesday. They'll play a home match against No. 12 Washington this Wednesday, before facing the Vikings Sunday.
Kendall Moore and Victoria Miller scored the two goals for the Aztecs, while Kailey Carlen recorded the shutout in goal.
The Aztecs enter their first year in the newly reconstructed Pac-12 Conference. They were picked to finish fourth in the nine-team league. Carlen made the Preseason Impact List along with teammates Lily Boudet and Katie Senn.
Carlen started all 20 matches for the Aztecs as a freshman last season. She ranked tied for second in the Mountain West Conference with seven shutouts.
Senn made the All-Mountain West second team last season when she led the team in both points (12) and assists (8). Her eight assists ranked her tied for second in the Mountain West a year ago.
Boudet started 17 of the team's 20 matches last season, finishing with six points between two goals and two assists.

SERIES NOTES:

The Vikings lost their only other meeting with San Diego State, a 4-0 road defeat on Sept. 7, 1997. That match came in the Vikings' second year as an NCAA Division I program.

FREE KICKS

The Vikings opened the season with a pair of losses last week to Oregon (3-0) and UNLV (1-0).
The Vikings have yet to score a goal this season. They hadn't recorded a shot on goal through their first three halves of the season, before things opened up in the second half against UNLV. The Vikings outshot the Rebels 9-to-5 in the second half, with six of those nine shots being on frame.
Fourteen players have accounted for the Vikings' 18 shots this season. Ocean Rideout, Aliayha Saldana, Grace Sarabia and Sydney Spotts have recorded two shots each while 10 other players have one shot each.
The Vikings were picked to finish sixth in the Big Sky Conference in the league's preseason coaches poll. The Vikings are coming off a 3-3-2 league record in 2025 when they were also 4-9-4 overall.
The Vikings qualified for the Big Sky tournament for the fourth straight season in 2025 but fell 1-0 in the quarterfinals to Idaho.
The Vikings returned eight starters off last year's team, including All-Big Sky second-team selection Grace Sarabia and honorable mentions Ocean Rideout and Aliayha Saldana. Additionally, Elle Frazier – an All-Big Sky second-team selection in 2024 – returns to the active roster after missing last season with an injury.
Head coach Maureen Whitney (Sacramento State, 2001) begins her third year as head coach. She has an 8-18-9 career record, 5-6-5 in Big Sky Conference matches. Whitney is in her 10th season overall with the Viking program.
FROM THE WINDY CITY TO THE ROSE CITY: Senior midfielder Alexis Boyer, junior midfielder Gabby Flores and senior midfielder Renee Davis are all transfers from Chicago State. Davis and Flores were the Cougars' point leaders in 2025. Davis had four goals and two assists while Flores had three goals and three assists. Boyer, meanwhile, ranked fourth on the team with 1,417 minutes played over 19 total appearances and 18 starts.
Three Vikings – sophomore midfielder McKenna Eggleston, sophomore defender Gianelly Gargurevich, and sophomore forward Claire Masters — are from Tigard, Oregon, where they played together at Tigard High School under head coach Scott Eggleston (McKenna's father).
Portland State has 11 Oregonians on the roster, 10 of which are from the Portland metro area… in the era of the transfer portal, PSU has 11 players on the roster who competed at other four-year schools.
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND: The Vikings have two intra-conference transfers in Kendel Johnson (Montana) and Josie DeLine (Weber State). Johnson played in four matches as a freshman as Montana swept the Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles last season. DeLine, meanwhile, played two seasons for Weber State (2023-24) before transferring to the Vikings ahead of their 2025 season.
The Big Sky Conference expands this season with the addition of Utah Tech and Southern Utah (despite the departure of Sacramento State). There are now nine conference matches (rather than eight). PSU will play four at home and five on the road. Overall, the Vikings have 17 scheduled matches, with eight at home and nine on the road. Among non-conference opponents, California Baptist, now a member of the Big West Conference, won the Western Athletic Conference last season and competed in the NCAA Tournament. San Diego State and Boise State were powerhouses in the Mountain West Conference last season, with the Broncos going 8-0-2 in league play. PSU plays at University of Portland on Sept. 10.

STATS ROUNDUP

The Vikings have been a defense-first team the past two years. They averaged just 0.72 goals per game in 2024, then improved slightly to 0.82 per game last season. So, the Vikings' lack of a goal through their first two games, while not ideal, isn't atypical.
The Vikings allowed only five goals in eight conference matches last season, and never more than one in any match. The three goals the Vikings gave up to Oregon in their season opener last Thursday were the most by a Viking opponent in 10 matches, going back to a 3-2 loss to Southern Utah on Sept. 21, 2025.
The Vikings rank fourth in the Big Sky with 9.0 shots per game. They had nine shots through their first three halves of the season before breaking out with nine shots – six on goal – in the second half against UNLV.
The Vikings returned their top six scorers from last season. Ocean Rideout led the Vikings with four goals and 10 points. Aliayha Saldana and Grace Sarabia tied for second on the team with two goals each. Bianca Potesta, another returner, also tied Rideout for the team lead with two assists last season.
Finley Crabtree ranks tied for fourth in the Big Sky with 3.0 saves per game. She had five in only 74 minutes of playing time in the team's season opener against Oregon.
The Vikings have committed 10 fouls per game through the first weekend of the season. That's tied for the most by a Big Sky team.