The Utah soccer team is home this weekend to face Arizona State and Arizona, its final push of the regular season. The Utes are hoping to rebound from their losing woes and climb higher in the Pac-12 standings to grab a better tournament position before season’s end.
The Utes play on Friday with a late start against Arizona State (3-4-1, 7-7-1). The Sun Devils, who currently sit two spots above the Utes at eighth place in the Pac-12, are hoping to build off a 1-0 win against Oregon, but it has not all been smooth sailing. They are recovering from a seven-game losing streak that happened in the middle of their season. The Utes want to add to this and hope the late kickoff in colder weather and their home crowd advantage will help.
After Friday’s blackout game, the Utes then face a tougher opponent in No. 21 ranked Arizona (5-3-0, 11-4-1) on Sunday. The Wildcats have been one of the better sides in the Pac-12 and currently sit in fourth. However, Arizona also showed a period of weakness with a three-game losing streak at the beginning of October, with their most surprising loss coming at the hands of UCLA, who routed the Wildcats 5-1 in Tucson. The Utes know this Arizona team can be broken down with their possession game but also need to be wary of a Wildcat offense that scores the second-most goals per game out of the Pac-12.
With both teams coming to Salt Lake City, Utah is up to the challenge. The Utes want to begin their final home stand on the right foot and give the fans something to cheer about after a disappointing season.
Utah head coach Rich Manning knows both of these games are crucial for the team’s pride. More importantly, it’s a chance to send out the senior players the best way possible: with a three-game winning streak.
“We want to make sure that we finish on a high note,” said Manning. “We’ve been playing well and been fighting hard, and I’m really proud of that. What we need is a winning result, a winning performance. Get a couple goals and get a couple home wins. I think that will be the proper way for these guys to finish up their college careers.”
Goalkeeper Lindsay Luke also hopes to finish her college career strong, but to do so, Utah will need to take complete advantage of every single opportunity.
“I feel that the last two games that we played the best soccer possession-wise, but what we need to do is to create more chances,” Luke said. “I think that will be the difference with these two games. We get a couple goals and it will make a world of a difference against these two teams.”
Manning also has one last goal: getting his team higher in the standings to at least show that Utah is better than sitting in the bottom of the Pac-12.
“We have a lot to play for,” Manning said. “Both of these teams provide different challenges like all the teams in the conference. Every game our goal is to grab as much points as we can to help towards the end of the season.”
Friday’s game is at 7 p.m. against Arizona State and Sunday’s game against Arizona is at 1 p.m.
@chad_marquez