LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Soccer season is finally here as the New Mexico State women's soccer team travels to Tempe, Ariz., to take on Arizona State in an exhibition game on Sunday, Aug. 12, at 4 p.m. (MT).
 
Follow Along
Aggie fans can follow along with every Aggie women's soccer match throughout the season via live stats from StatBroadcast.
 
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Get connected with all things NM State women's soccer by following the Aggies on Twitter, Instagram and on Facebook at FB.com/NMStateWSOC.
 
Quick Hits
NM State women's soccer kicks off its 10^th season with an exhibition game at Arizona State on Sunday, Aug. 12, at 4 p.m. (MT). New Mexico State returns eight starters from last year's team in Dmitri Fong, Audriana Chavez, Samantha Afonso, Rebecca Mazzie, Aileen Galicia, Micaela Milavec, Kelly Burton and Sarina Stockton. In 2017, the Aggie offense led the Western Athletic Conference in points (120) and goals (42). The 2018 squad returns 64 percent of its goals from 2017 — led by seniors Galicia (10g) and Chavez (9g). New Mexico State was also picked to finish sixth in the WAC while Galicia was named to the Preseason All-WAC team.
 
Baarts Era Begins
Head Coach Rob Baarts is entering his first season at the helm for the Aggies. Formerly an assistant at the University of Portland, his alma mater, and San José State, Baarts brings championship pedigree to the position. He helped lead the Portland women's program to a national championship in 2005, finishing the season with a 23-0-2 record. Baarts spent the last two seasons at San José State where he helped guide the Spartans to the 2017 Mountain West Conference regular-season championship.
 
Coach Baarts comes to NM State with an extensive background in player development. While with SJSU, he guided 12 players to all-league honors, including the 2017 Mountain West Conference Newcomer of the Year and the 2017 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year. He also aided in the development of national team players such as Megan Rapinoe, Stephanie Cox, Sophie Schmidt and Christine Sinclair during their time at Portland. Sinclair is second all-time in international goals with 173 and is the top goal-scorer in Canada's history.
 
As a player, Baarts was a four-year letter winner for Portland from 1987-90 and is still the Pilots second all-time leader in game-winning goals with 13. The 1988 Pilots team captained by Baarts recorded an undefeated regular-season and made the program's first NCAA Tournament semifinals appearance. Baarts also played professionally with the Portland Pride, Portland Pythons and Utah Freezz after a stellar collegiate career.
 
Scouting Arizona State
Arizona State finished the 2017 season with a 5-11-3 overall record and a 2-7-2 mark in Pac-12 play. ASU won the only other meeting between the programs, 5-0, on Sept. 12, 2014.
 
Eighty-four percent of the Sun Devils' goals return for 2018 including leading scorer, Jemma Purfield (6g, 3a). Purfield was called up this summer to the English U23 women's national team for a friendly against Sweden.
 
ASU also boasts two players who represented their respective countries in the U20 World Cup in France. Freshman midfielder Eva Van Deursen represented the Netherlands while fellow freshman and midfielder Alexia Delgado was tabbed to captain the Mexican side.
 
All-WAC Honorees
Three Aggies were recognized by the WAC for their performances during the 2017 campaign. Redshirt senior forward Devin Hart (first-team), junior forward Aileen Galicia (first-team) and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Dmitri Fong (second-team) earned spots on the All-WAC team.
Hart led the WAC in points (31), points per game (1.48), assists (9) and was second in the WAC in goals (11). Meanwhile, Galicia was third in the WAC in points (25), points per game (1.32) and goals (10). Fong led the WAC in saves (106) last season and was second in save percentage (.841).
 
Fresh Faces
Head coach Rob Baarts signed 10 freshmen and added two transfers to his inaugural recruiting class. Paradise Valley Community College transfer Kaitlyn May and Linfield College transfer Emma Smith will look to make an immediate impact for NM State. Smith is a dynamic goal-scorer who led Linfield with seven goals as a freshman in 2017 while May is a skillful defender who will anchor the Aggies' backline.
 
Home Sweet Home
New Mexico State has 15 players from New Mexico on its roster, by far the most from any state, with two more players down I-10 in El Paso, Texas. Six of the 10 freshmen also hail from the Land of Enchantment.
 
Dynamic Duo
NM State returns two of its top three goal scorers and two players with their names all over the record books in senior forwards Aileen Galicia and Audriana Chavez. Galicia (10g, 5a) and Chavez (9g, 4a) combined for 19 goals and nine assists for 47 points during the 2017 season.
Galicia is NM State's all-time leading goal-scorer with 22 goals leading into her senior campaign with Chavez not far behind at fourth with 17. Galicia is also the career-leader in points with 54 (22g, 10a) while Chavez is fifth all-time with 42 points (17g, 8a).
 
Chavez re-wrote the record books by knocking in four game-winning goals in 2017, the most in a single-season by any Aggie — a record previously set by Galicia in 2016 (3).
 
Excellence in Goal
Dmitri Fong is back in net for NM State after receiving Second-Team All-WAC honors as a redshirt freshman. Fong's five shutouts in 2017 were the most by any Aggie goalkeeper in a single-season. Her 106 saves in 2017 were the second-most saves in a single-season as well. Fong's .841 save percentage was also the highest in a single-season. The redshirt sophomore currently holds the second-lowest career goals against average in NM State history, allowing only 1.28 goals per game.
 
Backup goalkeeper Ashley Martin holds the NM State career record for saves with 178 heading into her senior campaign. Martin's 16 saves against Kansas City in 2015 stands as the single-game record.
 
Looking Ahead
The Aggies start regular-season play with a three-game road trip starting on Friday, Aug. 17, at 8 p.m. (MT) against San Diego State. New Mexico State then faces Albany in Tucson, Ariz., on Sunday, Aug. 19, at 1 p.m. before wrapping up their season-opening road swing against Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Friday, Aug. 24, at 8 p.m.