SAN DIEGO - Playing their one and only exhibition contest of the preseason, Washington State soccer looked to be already in midseason form as the Cougars ran roughshod over their hosts, San Diego State, with a 5-0 win Friday night at SDSU Sports Deck. Showing off a their new weapons in the attack, the Cougars buried the Aztecs early with a 3-0 lead at the break before tacking on a pair of second half goals to complete the win.

"It was a good way to start the season to get an exhibition game under our belt in preparation for Seattle U," said head coach Todd Shulenberger. "I thought the girls had a really good performance tonight. A shutout is always important in college soccer and we scored some goals along the way. I thought we did a good job and had a nice balanced attack. We got a lot of players in the game tonight, maybe 20 players in the game tonight and at the same time got the result. It's just one game, exhibition. We're live next Thursday so there is a lot of cleaning up still to do at the same time."

Setting the tone early, the Cougars high powered offense flexed its muscle with graduate transfer Averie Collins netting the first goal of the night in her debut. The Stanford transfer and 2017 national champion made her presence felt immediately, connecting on a header just 12 minutes into the game. While it was the fresh face of Collins that put WSU out front it was a familiar face that set up the strike as senior Morgan Weaver found her new running mate for the first points of a six point night. The star striker would get in the book herself just over 10 minutes later with the first of two first-half goals to put the game out of reach within the first 45 minutes of action. Weaver put herself on the MAC Hermann Trophy watch list heading into her final season after scoring six goals in the final five matches of the 2018 season including a hat-trick against Washington in the regular season finale.

With the game in hand the Cougars offense was not ready to pull back as the Cougs saw the return to form of junior Elyse Bennett just 11 minutes into the second half. The third-year striker put WSU ahead 4-0 with her first score since the middle of the 2018 Pac-12 campaign when she suffered a season-ending injury. Not to be left out of the fun, freshman MacKenzie Frimpong-Ellertson put the contest to bed and her name in the scorebook seven minutes later with a fifth Cougar goal, the last assisted by Weaver once again. The freshman phenom will look to make a name for herself on the east side of the state after her mother dominated the West Side in the early 2000s. The young Coug was one of two freshmen to start the exhibition contest for the Cougars alongside of Bridget Rieken who patrolled the center of the defense for WSU in her collegiate debut. 

Bennett was not the only Coug to show she was ready for live action as junior Aaqila McLyn returned to the defensive backline after missing the back half of the 2018 Pac-12 season due to injury. In addition, WSU's defense was bolstered by the return of its captain, sixth-year 'keeper Ella Dederick, who stepped back in between the posts for the first time since early September to post the shutout, playing the first 45 minutes without facing a single shot on goal. Dederick finished the 2018 season 5-0 with 2.5 shutouts before suffering a season-ending injury as well. In the second half, fifth-year senior Rachel Johnson picked up where Dederick left off, making one save to complete the shutout. Johnson finished the 2018 season for Dederick going 8-6-1 while leading the Cougars into the second-round of the NCAA Tournament.

With the offense and the defense ready to go the Cougars will begin the 2019 regular season in just under one-week as WSU travels to the West Side to take on Seattle U, Aug. 22. The two teams open the regular season for the second-straight year after WSU defeated the Redhawks, 3-1, at Lower Soccer Field to begin 2018.