(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

OPENING TOUCH: Dixie State (6-3-0/2-2-0 PacWest) heads back out on the road this weekend as the Trailblazers travel to the Bay Area for a four-game PacWest trip, beginning with a match at Notre Dame de Namur (6-4-0/3-2-0 PacWest) this Saturday, Oct. 7, at 12 noon (PT) in Belmont, Calif. DSU will then cross the Golden Gate Bridge to San Rafael to square off against Dominican (3-5-1/1-3-0) on Monday, Oct. 9 at 12 noon (PT).
    Live stats and video information for both matches can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: DSU is 7-4-0 all-time vs. NDNU and has won three-straight in the series overall, including a 2-1 result at Legend Solar Stadium last season, and a 3-2 road victory the last time the two teams met in Belmont (10/15/15).
    Dixie State enters Monday's match vs. Dominican with a 6-4-0 record against the Penguins, though DUC has won the last two meeting overall. Dominican claimed a 1-0 victory in St. George last season (10/29/16), and a 2-1 result on its home pitch in 2015 (10/2/15).

COACHING STAFF: Head Coach Kacey Bingham (Arizona State, 2006) is in her fifth season on the Trailblazers sidelines. Bingham has compiled a 45-30-3 overall record at DSU, including a 35-18-1 mark in Pacific West Conference play. Last season Bingham led DSU to an 11-7-0 overall record (9-4-0 PacWest/T3rd), which tied for the most wins in her brief tenure as head coach, and marked the third-straight season DSU had won 10 or more matches overall.
    Bingham is joined on the sideline by fourth-year assistant coach Abby Johnson, along with first-year assistants Erin Dierickx and Bryce Ross.

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED FIFTH IN PACWEST: Heading into its final season of Pacific West Conference play, Dixie State was picked to finish fifth in the league's annual women's soccer preseason coaches' poll released on Aug. 15.
    Defending PacWest champion Azusa Pacific was the overwhelming choice to repeat as the Cougars received 10 out of a possible 14 first-place votes in topping the poll with 189 points. California Baptist, which is also in its final season of PacWest membership before its move to the NCAA Division I ranks, placed second in the poll with 169 points.
    Concordia-Irvine received one of the other four first place votes to finish third in the poll with 160 points, followed in fourth by Point Loma, which collected three first place nods and 152 points. DSU (144) checked in fifth, while PacWest newcomer Biola (114 points) and Fresno Pacific (113 points) rounded out the top-half of the poll in sixth and seventh place, respectively.
    Dixie State did land a major preseason award as senior forward Darian Murdock (Herriman, Utah/Herriman HS) was voted 2017 PacWest Preseason Player of the Year and garnered preseason all-conference honors.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State closed its season-long five-match homestand on a sour note as the Trailblazers were felled by California Baptist by a 4-1 count last Saturday night at Legend Solar Stadium. CBU tallied its first goal just 8:23 into the match and held a two-goal advantage before DSU got on the board with a Jamie Iurato (Mesa, Ariz./Heritage Academy) goal in the 57th-minute. However the Lancers quelled any hopes of a Trailblazer rally as they answered with two more scores as part of a three-goal second half to come away with the result.

QUICK KICKS: Senior forward Darian Murdock (Herriman, Utah/Herriman HS) notched her third career hat trick in  DSU's 5-1 win over Chaminade (9/21) ... Murdock's hat trick moved her into exclusive company as she is just the third DSU player in the program's NCAA era to score at least three goals in a match on multiple occasions ... former DSU player Jennifer Mason (2011-14) achieved the feat a program-best four times in her four-year career, while Mikayla Wilkes (2006-09) posted a pair of four-goal games and had a three-goal match to her credit in her four seasons in a DSU kit ... In all, six players in the program's NCAA-era have posted hat tricks, including Kaisa (Goodman) Rogers in 2012, and Erika Mouritsen and Wendy Stratford in 2008 ... Murdock currently stands third in DSU's four-year era in goals scored (31), GWG (10) and points (69), and enter play this weekend ranked 21st-nationally in goals scored (8) and 17th in GWG (3).
    Junior forward Jamie Iurato (Mesa, Ariz./Heritage Academy) has found the back of the net in three of her last five games, including a two-goal effort vs. Chaminade (9/21) to go with her goal vs. CBU ... freshman Tori Page (Centerville, Utah/Viewmont HS) also has a two-goal match to her credit, which came in DSU's win over Westminster College (9/15) to open the homestand, and she tied with Iurato for second on the team with four goals overall ... senior defender Montana Hadley (Bountiful, Utah/Viewmont HS) has tallied five total points in DSU's last four matches, including an assist on Murdock's GWG vs. Chaminade, while she scored a GWG of her own in the win over Biola (9/23) ... Hadley also collected an assist on the Iurato goal vs. CBU, the 12th assist in her four-year career, which leaves her one dime short of moving into a tie for fifth place on DSU's career assist list.
    Senior Tana Singley (Farmington, Utah/Viewmont HS) is currently ranked fifth in the NCAA D-II ranks in assists with seven through nine matches, including an assist in the Biola win and a school single-game record tying four dimes in DSU's 8-2 win over Westminster (9/15), which helped her earn PacWest Player of the Week honors ... Singley needs two more assists to pass former DSU forward Jasmine Arollo atop DSU's single-season assists list ... Arollo collected eight assists in both the 2014 and 2015 seasons to break the program record.
    Sophomore netminder Felicity Tarr (Tucson, Ariz./Mountain View Marana HS) (5-3-0) recorded her fourth and fifth wins of the season (and ninth of her career) in the Chaminade/Biola results, which moved her into sixth on DSU's career wins list ... Tarr has also played enough minutes in goal (min. 1,000) to vault all the way to the top of the program's career GAA list at 0.86 as she has allowed only 12 total goals in 1,245 minutes (19 total matches played).
    DSU set a single game record with seven first half goals vs. Westminster (9/15), which bested the previous record of six, which was first set against Westminster in the final game of the 2006 season (W, 9-0; 10/28/06), and tied 2007 in a 10-2 victory over Northwest Christian College (9/7) in a match played, coincidentally, at Westminster College.
    Entering play this weekend, the Trailblazer offense is fourth in Division II in assists (30) and is ranked second overall in assists/match (3.33 apg), t-13th in points (84), t-15th in scoring offense (3.00 gpg), and t-22nd in the country in goals scored (27) ... Dixie State is averaging 20.0 shots/10.7 SOG per game, while the Trailblazer defense has surrendered 11 goals in nine matches (1.19 GAA) and has held opponents to 10.5 shots/5.8 SOG per game.

UP NEXT: Dixie State continues its Bay Area trip with a match at Academy of Art on Thursday, Oct. 12, before closing the trip at Holy Names on Saturday, Oct. 14.