(MATCH NOTES)

OPENING TOUCH: Dixie State (10-3-0/8-0-0 PacWest) begins a five-match homestand to close out the 2016 regular season on Homecoming Saturday as the Trailblazers welcome in Academy of Art (2-9-1/2-5-0 PacWest) to Legend Solar Stadium beginning at 5:30 p.m. DSU enters Saturday's match riding a school-record 10-game winning streak after having swept all four games of its Hawaiian road swing last week. Meanwhile, the Urban Knights will play a PacWest match at Fresno Pacific on Wednesday prior to their arrival to St. George. 

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT: Dixie State is 4-4-1 all-time in its series with Academy of Art, 4-4-1, including a 1-0 road result last season in San Francisco after the Urban Knights had won the previous two meetings.

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED SEVENTH IN PACWEST: Dixie State was picked to finish seventh in the Pacific West Conference preseason coaches' poll released on August 17. Defending conference champion Fresno Pacific was tabbed the 2016 preseason favorite as the Sunbirds collected eight first-place votes and 188 points to headline the poll, while Point Loma (163 points) was selected to finish second, Hawai'i Pacific (154) received two first-place nods in placing third and Notre Dame de Namur (146) got one first-place vote to claim fourth. Azusa Pacific (131), California Baptist (one first-place vote, 131) and DSU (one first-place vote, 128) rounded out the top-half of the poll.
    The Trailblazers also landed two players on the preseason all-PacWest team. Senior netminder Bradley Trella (Chandler, Ariz./Chandler HS) was named PacWest Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year, while he and junior defender Bryan Baugh (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) were voted onto the preseason all-conference team.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State ran its winning streak to a school-record 10 matches as the Trailblazer won all four games on their Hawaiian road gauntlet last week. DSU combined to outscore its four opponents by an 11-1 count, beginning with a 1-0 result at BYU-Hawaii Oct. 8. Dixie State then posted a pair of 3-0 victories at Hawai'i Pacific (Oct. 10) and Hawai'i Hilo (Oct. 13), before closing the trip with a 4-1 win at Chaminade Oct. 15.

NIELSON AND MEDINA EARN PACWEST WEEKLY HONORS: Thanks to its road sweep in Hawai'i last week, two Dixie State players earned PacWest awards this past Monday. Freshman goalkeeper Zach Nielson (West Point, Utah/Northridge HS) was named PacWest Defender of the Week, while freshman forward Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) was tabbed as the league's Freshman of the Week.
    Nielson, who earned the conference's freshman award the week prior after the BYU-H match, started and won all three matches played last week at Hawai'i Pacific, Hawai'i Hilo and Chaminade, and did not allow a goal in 195:56 combined minutes of game action. Bolstered by the overall stout play of the Trailblazers' defense, which allowed only one goal on the road trip, Nielson made a total of seven saves in his three starts and lowered his goals against average to 0.26.  
    Medina earned his second PacWest freshman honor in three weeks after he tallied seven points on three goals and an assist in three matches last week. He recorded his first collegiate multi-goal game with a pair of goals in DSU's 3-0 win at Hawai'i Hilo (10/13). Medina then collected his team-leading fifth game-winning goal in Dixie State's last six matches and assisted on another tally in the Trailblazers' 4-1 win at Chaminade last Saturday. Medina currently co-leads the PacWest in game-winning goals (5) and is fifth in goals scored (6), t-fourth in points (16) and t-fifth in assists (4).
    DSU has virtually owned the PacWest freshman award this season as a Trailblazer player has won the honor in each of the last four weeks and in five of the seven total weeks overall. In addition to Medina and Nielson, midfielder Jandir Porta (West Valley City, Utah/Hunter HS) (Sept. 12) and forward Christian Hall (Layton, Utah/Northridge HS) (Sept. 26) each has been earned the weekly freshman award.

DSU IN THE POLLS: Dixie State received votes in this week's NSCAA Division II Coaches Top-25 poll, which was released on Tuesday. In addition, the first official NCAA West Region rankings were released on Wednesday and the Trailblazers find themselves ranked fifth overall and are the only PacWest school in this week's poll.

QUICK KICKS: For the first time in the program's NCAA D-II era, Dixie State has won its first eight PacWest matches ... in 2011, DSU won its first six league matches on its way to a 7-5-0 PacWest finish, while last year the Trailblazers posted a tie in their first PacWest game and then followed it up with five-straight wins en route to a program-best 8-1-4 league result ... in all, six different Trailblazers scored goals in Hawai'i, including two apiece by juniors Sean Jenne (Las Vegas, Nev./Centennial HS) (3) and Ather Dawood (Tucson, Ariz.) (4), while senior Hunter Ketterer (Heber City, Utah/Wasatch HS), sophomore Gabby Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) (4) and freshman Christian Hall (Layton, Utah/Northridge HS) (4) also registered goals on the trip ... in addition, seven different players collected assists, including dimes from freshmen Gustavo Ortega (Las Vegas, Nev./Cimarron Memorial HS), Blake Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS), Angel Estrada (Pasadena, Calif./Pasadena HS), Jandir Porta (West Valley City, Utah/Hunter HS) and Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS), while sophomore Gabby Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) picked up his team-leading fifth assist in the win at Chaminade.  
    Junior defender Bryan Baugh (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) also got into the act as he dished out his 10th-career assist in the Chaminade match, which moved him into a tie for first place on DSU's career assists list with former DSU player Tyler Albretsen (2009-12).
    Hall broke the program's record for quickest goal in school history in DSU's 1-0 win at PLNU (9/24) ... Hall scored just 37 seconds into the match, which broke the previous school record for quickest goal set back on Oct. 12, 2013, when former DSU player Nadav Elimelich scored just 1:24 into a match at Holy Names ... in all, DSU has tallied five goals in the first two minutes of a match in its D-II era, including Gabby Mendina's first goal vs. FPU Oct. 1 (1:50) ...  the first instance came on Oct. 30, 2010, when Zac Hales scored a goal at the 1:51 mark of a home match vs. Chaminade, then on Oct. 1, 2011, Alex Lawhun needed just 1:32 to find the back of the net in a home match vs. California Baptist.  
    Senior netminder Bradley Trella (Chandler, Ariz./Chandler HS), who missed all four games in Hawai'i due to injury, will enter his final five regular season games looking to become DSU's career shutouts leader ... Trella earned his record-tying 11th ShO of his career in DSU's 1-0 win over Holy Names (9/27), which tied him with former DSU GK Tyler Waters (2010-13), who had 11 career shutouts in his four-year career ... Trella has surrendered just three goals over his last 552 minutes of play in goal ... sophomore reserve keeper Eddie Ortiz (Las Vegas, Nev./Cimarron Memorial HS) also played well in goal on the Hawaii trip as he surrendered just one goal in 74-plus minutes of game action spread over three matches with four saves ... DSU's defensive unit, anchored by Baugh, Ketterer, Estrada, sophomore Dominic Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS) and junior Alexi Beiza, combined to limit their four Hawaiian opponents to just 30 total shots (7.5 spg) and 18 shots (4.5 spg) shots on goal ... entering this week's matches, Dixie State is averaging 14.5 shots/7.7 SOG per outing.

UP NEXT: Dixie State continues its homestand next Saturday, Oct. 29, vs. Dominican beginning at 4:30 p.m., at nearby Dixie High School.