After beating Washington 1-0 last week, the Utah soccer team is back on the road and will head to Tempe, Ariz. to compete against Arizona State on Thursday, Sept. 29. Following Thursday’s game, the team will head to Tucson to compete against Arizona.
“I think when we travel on the road, we have to make sure to keep the right mindset and energy level,” said head coach Rich Manning. “We are defending really well as a team, and I want us to continue to do that, but I want to try and improve on our offense a little bit and create a few more chances.”
When the Utes went up against ASU last year they took a 2-1 victory over the Sun Devils in overtime. Utah’s opponent led for the majority of the game, but it wasn’t until there were five minutes remaining when junior forward Natalie Vukic took a shot 20 yards back, and the ball found the net, and she sent the game into overtime.
“That [goal] was so exciting,” Vukic said. “My parents were here that weekend, and they are like my good luck charm, so it was so exciting to score in that game. It was such an upbeat game.”
During overtime, the two teams continued to battle, but it was former Ute Megan Trabert who gave her team the go-ahead goal in extra time. Off of a corner shot from teammate Paola van der Veen, Trabert sailed the ball into the back of the net, and Utah won the game.
“I think we definitely fought hard,” Vukic said. “But, I think it is going to be different this year, because we have kind of a different team chemistry — a better team chemistry — so although we fought hard last year, I don’t feel like we had that sort of strong connection that we have this year. I’m feeling really confident about this weekend and I’m excited.”
The Utes played against Arizona after ASU last year as well, but didn’t have the results they saw from a few days before. Utah couldn’t hold off the Wildcats, and it suffered a 1-0 defeat.
Although the Utes took the win over ASU last year, they haven’t had much luck in the past. The year prior to last, the Utes and the Sun Devils tied, and they lost two more matches the years prior to that. Utah’s last win against ASU was seen in 2011 when the team took another 2-1 victory.
Fortunately, the Utes haven’t seen a gap in wins with Arizona like they have with ASU. Although the game ended in a tie in 2014, the year prior, Utah took a 1-0 victory of the Wildcats. Vukic hopes to see a win from both games, but she knows that her team needs to work on a few things in order to achieve that goal.
“For this weekend, I think we need to just work together, defending and attacking as a team and fighting hard,” Vukic said. “It’s not going to be an easy weekend, especially since Sunday games are always tiring, so we have got to come out strong for that one, but other than that, we just need to work our butts off and do the very best we can.”
Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m.
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