'Dogs take No. 5 seeding
By Chhun Sun
The Collegian
It looked like a Halloween party on the field east of Bulldog Stadium.
There were the Fanta girls, life-size bowling pins, Michael Jackson, a Mormon on a bicycle and a Fresno State football player.
The young women seemed ready for a night of partying or trick-or-treating, but there was one major problem: Halloween was the day before.
But to the women’s soccer team, Tuesday’s belated Halloween celebration was its only opportunity to dress up, a way for the players to take some tension off before they face Utah State Thursday for the quarterfinals of the WAC soccer tournament in Boise, Idaho.
The players took the first few minutes of practice taking pictures and laughing at each other’s costumes.
Then some changed and got down to business.
“This helps our nerves out,” said senior midfielder Koleen Anderson in a yellow Fanta girl dress, referring to a tradition the team picked up last year when its playoff against Rice landed on Halloween.
“We’re like a family, so we like to do fun things together,” Anderson said.
Anderson and teammates know their fun can’t last long.
The Bulldogs, whose overall record is 7-9-2, drew a No. 5 seed Monday. The No. 2 San Jose State, No. 3 Nevada and No. 4 Utah State and Fresno State all have identical 4-2-1 WAC records.
Fresno State head into the WAC tourney with an impressive win over No. 1 Hawaii, defeating the Warriors 1-0 in the last game of the season.
“The team does really well when we score early,” Anderson said about the Hawaii game where Nicole Gutierrez scored within the first 15 minutes.
Head coach Steve Springthorpe can agree.
“If we can score early, put pressure on and crack the defensive, we’ll head in the right direction,” Springthorpe said, who, due to business schedule, couldn’t dress up as the Bush Man, referring to the popular street entertainer in San Francisco.
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