(Photo: James Powel /WCSN)
The Arizona State University women’s soccer team will look to build on their 5-2-1 record as they enter Pac-12 conference play.
The Sun Devils made some strides in the non-conference portion of their schedule, taking down Northern Illinois and Cal State Fullerton among others. In their five wins, ASU controlled the tempo of the match, and seemed to flow with ease on offense.
After going their first six games without a loss, ASU jumped into a mini tailspin, dropping back to back contests to Denver University and The University of San Francisco.
In both of the Devil’s two losses, ASU heavily outshot their opponents, holding a 40-14 advantage of their opponents. The Sun Devils went into the two games as favorites, with no wins coming to fruition and being outscored 2-5.
“We talked about it, obviously the losses were tough,” sophomore midfielder Adriana Orozco said. “We try to put them behind us and focus on performing.”
ASU turned to junior forward Jazmarie Mader, and redshirt senior midfielder Lucy Lara among other upperclassmen to carry the team through the opening games of the season. Mader is currently tied for first among the Pac-12 leaderboard in goals scored.
“I think our three captains have done a great job,” Boyd said. There’s multiple other players adding their thoughts and trying to help as well.”
Already experiencing the downs and lows of a soccer season, ASU will work on regaining the consistency they found early on in the year.
“We know that the challenge in front of us is a good one,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “We’ve done a solid job in our non conference, and we were disappointed with the two that we lost because we felt we should’ve won. Either way, I felt we played well during that period of time.”
One thing the Sun Devils will be looking to improve on is finishing opportunities. Arizona State averages 19 shots per game while only conceding 8.8 shots to their opponents, but average just 1 goal per game more.
“Finishing out wins and obviously scoring more goals,” Lara said. “We want to score more goals and we’re more than capable of that.”
The Stanford Cardinal, currently ranked number one by all three major polls, will look to repeat as Pac-12 Champions. The Sun Devils host The Cardinal in Tempe on Oct 30.
Other key match ups include showdowns with USC, Cal and UCLA, all of which being games against ranked teams.
The Devils open their Pac-12 slate on Thursday with the Bruins in Los Angeles, as ASU will look to pull the upset and start conference play on a high note.
