The time has come for the most anticipated match of the season.
The Arizona soccer team (4-13-0, 1-9-0) will wrap up the 2021 schedule on Friday night, when it takes on Arizona State (10-7-2, 2-6-2) at Mulcahy Soccer Stadium.
While this will be her first UA-ASU tilt, first-year Wildcats coach Becca Moros knows a little bit about rivalry games.
"I went to Duke, so I was part of the UNC-type rivalry and the geographic proximity of the schools makes for an even better rivalry than some of the other ones,” Moros said. “It is a rivalry I already love and I have no problem finding ways to hate ASU, so it is a cool thing to be a part of.”
The Wildcats have defeated Arizona State in six straight games across the last five years. Fifth-year senior Jill Aguilera has mentioned that fact to her teammates ahead of what will be her final game as a Wildcat.
“I think we just pointed out that we had never lost to them, and that that is important to keep the streak alive regardless of whatever our past records were or what this year’s record is,” Aguilera said.
This year's UA team is relatively young, with freshmen and sophomores seeing a lot of playing time. Aguilera likes what she has seen out of them.
“Overall, I think our freshman and sophomore classes have stepped up in one of the biggest ways for specific classes since I have been here,” Aguilera said. “Specifically the freshmen, and Becca pointed this out as well, that these freshmen are playing a ton more minutes than a lot of other freshmen in the country. And you honestly couldn’t really point them out as freshmen and being so-called inexperienced because they have done so well for themselves and Becca has prepared them.
"We haven’t called them freshmen or newbies, and I think that they have really taken advantage of the opportunities for being such a young team.”
The Wildcats were finally able to pull out their first conference win under Moros last week against Utah. Aguilera scored the game's lone goal, putting her one score away from tying the program record for most goals scored in a career. The win meant a lot for a team that's striving to improve.
“When you go on losing streaks, a lot of the time the general consensus is that if you don’t get a win in the middle of the season, you’re never going to get one," junior goalie Hope Hisey said. "But I think we kept pushing because we knew that we deserved a win and we’re not a team that it is a guarantee you’re going to beat us even though we had been unsuccessful in the past.
"We come into every game and it is hard for the other teams and I feel like the luck finally came our way this time and we finally got what we all deserved.”
This will be the first rivalry game between the Wildcats and Sun Devils with fans in attendance since the 2019 season.
“Last year when we played them, we played them twice but we also played them in front of no fans because of COVID," Hisey said. "… My freshman year, we broke the attendance record during the ASU game and just the whole atmosphere that goes into it because the freshmen and the sophomores haven’t experienced that yet, but I think they are more than capable of handling it.”
Keeping a clean sheet will be the biggest key to extending Arizona's winning streak over the Devils.
“I think continuing to do the things we’ve been getting better at as far as our ball control, understanding on the field, our movement into the spaces and timing our of our moment and our defensive organization has gotten a lot better in the last two and a half games,” Moros said. “I think keeping them off the scoreboard and keeping a clean sheet will be a big thing for us. I feel fairly confident that if we keep the clean sheet, we’ll find a way to win.”
Hisey's message to the Tucson community heading into the rivalry game?
“It’s your last chance to watch Jill Aguilera as a Wildcat, so you better come out and enjoy it,” Hisey said. “The atmosphere is so great during the rivalry and their fans will be there. It is important to support this team because the future is really bright and you don’t want to hop on the bandwagon later.”
