Before a new athletic season begins, preseason polls are often released. This year, the University of Utah soccer team was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 Conference in the preseason coaches poll and No. 20 in the nation. Despite the high rankings and what it predicts about the team’s season, it’s something Utah doesn’t want to dwell on the entire season because there is always room for improvement.
Senior forward Natalie Vukic said being placed that high in the preseason polls speaks about how hard she and her team worked last season, but she doesn’t want to focus too much on the rankings Utah earned, and senior defender Janie Kearl agrees with her teammate.
“I think it’s really exciting, and it means that a lot of people have high hopes for us,” Kearl said. “But we really want to make sure that we are just focusing on getting better every week. So we don’t want to look too much into the numbers, we just want to play the best that we can.”
These rankings are only preseason polls and that’s something head coach Rich Manning understands. He knows it’s time for his team to prove why they earned the recognition they did.
Manning said the night before the Utes took on Utah State, he told his players that numbers don’t define the team. What defines Utah is how well it plays and how well it works together. Ranks can add pressure to a team, but Manning isn’t worried about that.
“I don’t think it has [added pressure] so far,” Manning said. “It does put a target on our backs from our opponents, like they want to be that high and want to show their opponents that they can do that so there is some pressure, but we welcome that. If we want to be a great team, we are going to have a high [ranking], we are going to have expectations and we are going to have to deal with that. So far, I’ve loved my team’s attitude about that.”
The Utes have continued their upward movement through the rankings since they have continued to stay undefeated in regular season action. On Aug. 24, the Utes moved up to No. 4 in the Pac-12 polls, and it jumped to second — where they currently sit — after their win against North Dakota State on Aug. 27.
Manning explained how the Pac-12 keeps track of how well teams play in non-conference games so to continue to beat other teams from other conferences gets him and his players excited about their pursuit of getting better. That’s something Vukic and Kearl is focused on.
For Vukic, she said that the dominance her team has had on the field explains how their season has been so far, and she believes it provides a glimpse at how strong they will be when they play teams from their conference.
“I think a lot of the time, Utah has been kind of overlooked,” Kearl said. “We’ve kind of been the underdogs for a while, and I think that now we are getting some attention and it’s really exciting, but we definitely want to keep that blue-collar type of attitude.”
Although rankings aren’t the main focus for the Utes, improvement is. Vukic said her team always thinks about what areas need improvement. One area that she wants to see development in is the postseason. Vukic wants to make it past the sweet 16 round. In order to do so, Manning will be pinpointing exactly what needs to be worked on this season.
“Right now, we are really focused on sharpening our game — our individual game and our team game,” Manning said. “That includes starting the game well. It also includes the players we have that were injured last year and some freshman, just getting everyone on the team on the same page. It’s really just sharpening the soft.”
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