30 years since 1st Arizona soccer season, schedule includes matchup at power UNC, Big 12 leap

The Arizona soccer program faces a mix of old and new in 2024 as the Wildcats change conferences in their 30th anniversary season.

The Wildcats are the first UA team to play a Big 12 contest, Sept. 12 at Utah. Though last season they played five current Big 12 teams, going 2-2-1.

Fourth-year UA head coach Becca Moros said she thinks the Wildcats’ years in the Pac-12 prepared them for the Big 12.

“The style of play is a little bit different so I think the Pac-12 had a pretty consistent sort of possession style ... compared to probably the rest of the country,” Moros said. “Although I would say the Big 12 has some teams that are as strong as our Pac-12 Conference, there’s a little more variety across the conference where we have some high performing teams and a little bit that are still in that climbing phase whereas in the Pac I think we had very established programs and typically strong programs.

“Even the worst team any given year in the Pac could take out one of the tops teams on a weekend,” she added.

Last season, three Big 12 teams made the NCAA tournament: BYU, Texas and Texas Tech.

While Texas has left the Big 12 for the SEC, BYU — a league newcomer in 2023 — reached the Final Four; the Cougars fell 2-0 to Stanford, then out of the Pac-12.

Colorado and ASU, new Big 12 programs in 2024-25 like Arizona and Utah, also made the NCAA Tournament out of the Pac-12.

The top 12 sides in the new 16-team Big 12 will head to Kansas City, Missouri, for the Sprouts Farmers Market Big 12 Soccer Championship. The tournament will run Oct. 30 to Nov. 9 at CPKC Stadium, which opened in March and is home of the WPSL’s Kansas City Current.

“I think the team is very excited, everyone’s ready for the new challenge,” forward Nicole Dallin, a grad student in her fifth year with the Wildcats, said about the Big 12. “We’ve been really focused on making it a comfortable environment for the team to thrive the best that we can and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.”

Arizona didn’t have any All-Pac-12 players last year but did lose goalkeeper Hope Hisey, a Canyon del Oro alum, to the pros. Hisey set the school record for career saves, 361, which is eighth in Pac-12 history.

UA went 6-8-5, 3-6-2 in its final Pac-12 season in 2023, but the Wildcats won their last two matches, 1-0 at Utah and 2-1 against ASU. Arizona has won eight of its last nine against the Sun Devils.

“I think we’re only just focusing on keeping that same energy and hitting the ground running,” Dallin said about keeping up the momentum from the last two games. “It’s not a hard thing to do keep the energy when it’s such a great group of girls.”

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It’s Moros’ fourth season, UA went 5-13 her first season and 8-7-3 in her second.

Arizona’s recruiting class features 10 freshmen; that includes four forwards, a position Moros said the Wildcats were thin at a year ago.

Dallin scored nine goals last year, fourth in the Pac-12.

UA’s seven-match nonconference schedule includes four sides that made the NCAA tournament last year, led by longtime national power North Carolina. The Tar Heels reached the Elite Eight before falling to BYU 4-3. The Wildcats’ first ever game against UNC will take place Aug. 25 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

North Carolina has won 21 national championships since the NCAA started staging women’s soccer tournaments in 1982. Stanford and Notre Dame are second with three titles apiece.

Also of note: Moros played her college soccer for Duke.

“With North Carolina, it’s just one of the most iconic programs in college athletics, period,” she said. “In soccer it is the most iconic program.

“So the opportunity to do a home and home with them and have our players have the opportunity to play at Dorrance (Field in Chapel Hill) and then get UNC here at our house in front of our fans (in a future season) — it was just super tempting,” she added. “Then obviously not playing against USC, Stanford and some of the other Pac competition, we thought it would be great to get another powerhouse on the schedule.”

UA has three fifth-year players in Dallin, midfield Megan Chelf and defender Sarah Rice.

“We’re super excited. I mean it’s crazy to think that we came in with 12 or 13 people (in their incoming class in 2020) and now we only have three, but it’s exciting,” Chelf said of the team’s evolution over the last few years. “Me, Sarah and Nikki are super pumped to be here. We wouldn’t have come back if we didn’t have any faith or belief in this program. We stand behind the coaches and the team 100%, so we’re really excited for what we’re gonna accomplish this season.”

Corner kicks

• The Big 12 conference season has 11 regular season matches over seven weeks. The conference rivals UA misses are Texas Tech, Colorado, Iowa State and Oklahoma State.
• UA went 77-184-23 all-time in Pac-12 play after joining the league in 1995. The Wildcats are 41-51-18 against the current Big 12.