Coaching change, Pac-12 struggles haven't deterred Wildcats freshman Marley Chappel

Marley Chappel was recruited to Arizona by coach Tony Amato. But one month before the team was set to meet for the first time this summer, Amato left for Florida.

Despite the last-minute change, Chappel was set on playing for the Wildcats. In fact, she called the coaching change — Amato was replaced by pro assistant coach Becca Moros — a “blessing in disguise.” Arizona (3-12-0, 0-8-0) will host Utah (6-8-3, 1-5-2) on Thursday night. The Wildcats will face Colorado on Sunday.

“I am super happy with Becca, and she is actually the best coach I have ever had,” Chappel said. “I am very excited to be working with her and I love the journey so far, so I’m very grateful.”

Chappel hails from Vail, Colorado. Her mom, Amy, was a collegiate skier at Colorado. Chappel grew up on the slopes.

“When I could walk,” she said, “I was on skis.”

Chappel qualified for the Junior Olympics for skiing, but wound up choosing soccer.

“Both sports require time and energy and I had to keep up with my school,” Chappel said. “When it came time to choose, I chose soccer. But skiing was a huge part of my life until my sophomore year of high school. It was the most time-consuming thing and it taught me a lot of stuff that I apply every day in soccer.”

When she made the decision to pursue soccer, Chappel made a huge change in her life. She left Colorado for a boarding school on the East Coast with hopes of improving her soccer skills. She repeated the 11th grade and then finished off 12th grade at Lawrence Academy in Massachusetts.

“It was just another year to develop as a soccer player,” Chappel said. “I got a really good scholarship to a great academic school and it had a pretty good soccer team as well. It was just a new experience and then another year to decide where I wanted to go to college because I was struggling with that. I loved it a lot.”

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She called repeating her junior season “probably one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

Chappel soon received scholarship offers from schools on the West Coast. She stuck with Arizona, in part because of the school’s proximity to Colorado and the chance to play in the Pac-12 Conference.

Chappel played a career-high 61 minutes in Sunday’s loss to Stanford. After the Cardinal took an early 3-0 lead, Moros stuck with the same front line in the second half. The group included Chappel.

“In the second half, we defended much better,” Moros said. “I wouldn’t say we were able to break out and get into our offensive shape, but we didn’t expose ourselves and get vulnerable and our front lines offensive pressure and willingness to get compact in our low block was a big part of our ability to do better in the second half than we did in the first half and Marley was a big part of that.”

Moros has seen Chappel improve daily.

“Her defensive organization is getting better and quicker,” Moros said. “Her ability to cut lanes and make it more difficult for players to play through us. Her back press to help out the players behind her when the ball does travel behind her is getting quicker and she is winning balls back for us in that way. Her focus and discipline is some of the best on the team, so she leads in that way as well which is great, especially as a freshman.”

Chappel hopes the team can improve in the final weeks of the season. After facing Colorado and Utah, Arizona will host rival Arizona State. The Wildcats have lost nine straight matches, and have been outscored 21-3 during that span.

Arizona’s coaches “are helping us keep our heads in this, even though our record doesn’t reflect how good I think we actually are,” Chappel said. “I think it is really important for us these next few games to prove things to ourself mostly. The results are whatever. Everyone can think what they want, but as a team we need to prove a lot to ourselves and prove what we can actually do.”