The Utes will try to stay unbeaten at home when they welcome Oregon and Oregon State to Ute Field this weekend.
Utah (4-1-5) is coming off a conference opening draw with No. 11 California and hope to keep the momentum they gained from that performance.
“We are real excited about how well we are performing,” says head coach Rich Manning. “We’re looking forward to another opportunity to get some good results.”
The Ducks come into Friday’s game with a 2-4-3 overall record. They opened conference play last week in a scoreless draw with Washington State.
Oregon’s outlook for success in Utah is bleak, given their recent past. The Ducks went winless in five conference road games last season and have not played a road game yet this year. The Utes are unbeaten at home with a record of 3-0-3.
“We want to take advantage of being at home and the altitude we have here,” Manning says. “We expect in the second halves of those games that we can take advantage of that.”
Though Oregon has only posted two victories this year, their defense has kept them in all of their games. They have yet to concede more than two goals in any game this season. Manning is not overlooking their strong defense.
“Oregon has fantastic team speed, maybe the best in the conference,” Manning says. “It’s going to be hard to get behind them, so the other options are to go around them or combine and go through them.”
Utah will look to get wide and cross it into the box to try and beat Oregon’s speed. Coaches have emphasized set pieces this week in practice, and the Utes will need good execution on those to beat the Ducks defense.
On Sunday the Utes will play host to the Beavers. Oregon State comes into the weekend with a 2-6-2 record. They are 0-0-1 in conference play after a draw with Washington.
The Utes are being careful not to overlook the Ducks and Beavers.
“We are prepared really well for each team,” defender Megan Trabert says. “So hopefully we will play as good as we did Friday.”
Trabert says last weekend’s draw boosted the Utes’ confidence, and they are heading into the weekend expecting victories.
The Utes are halfway through their season and looking to conserve energy. They will do so by using more substitutions and shorter shifts this weekend.
Both Oregon and OSU lack explosive attacks. The Ducks have put up nine goals in nine games, and the Beavers have only scored eight in their 10 matches. They will be going against Ute keeper Lindsey Luke, who leads the Pac-12 in both goals against average (.015) and save percentage (.960).
Friday’s match against Oregon will kick off at 7 p.m., and Sunday’s showdown with the Beavers begins at 1 p.m.