The Arizona soccer program returns 20 letter winners from 2023, and though the Wildcats must fill a vital position on the pitch, their 2024 season is off to a strong start.
Arizona opened its regular season Thursday night with a 1-0 win at Grand Canyon. Last year the Lopes and Wildcats tied 1-1 in Tucson, while GCU also eventually made the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats host Pacific (1-0) on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. in their home opener. The game can be streamed via ESPN+ (subscription required).
Grad student Nicole Dallin picked up where she left off last season with a goal in the 30th minute Thursday. The forward finished fourth in the Pac-12 last year in goals.
Grad student Sarah Rice got the assist, the first of her five-year UA college career.
Arizona came into the year knowing it had to replace alum Hope Hisey at goalkeeper. The Tucson native and Canyon del Oro alum holds the UA career saves record (366).
But freshman Sofia Cortes-Browne and junior Olivia Ramey combined in goal against GCU to earn the clean sheet. Ramey got the start and made one save, while Cortes-Browne came in for the second half and made two saves.
Ramey
Sophomore Ciara Ulreich-Power and freshman Kayla Kirchoffner are UA’s other two keepers.
Assistant coach Nat Gonzalez, who joined the staff last month, is working with a mostly inexperienced goalkeeper group. Before the GCU match, only Ramey, who started 11 games for Oklahoma in 2022, before transferring from the Sooners, had college experience.
Still, even before the Thursday opener, UA head coach Becca Moros said she’s been impressed with the keepers.
“I think they’ve done great. I think the unit, the four of them, are very competitive. They’re different; they have different qualities, different size, different sort of quickness, different handling,” Moros said Wednesday. “So as they all kind of get used to coach Nat’s training and our style of play and different things, then we’ll see how they emerge.”
Hisey is also first in UA history with the most games started (86) and second in goals-against average in a season, 0.80 in 2020-21.
“Hope, obviously that’s a huge hole to fill but I think with the goalies and the people that we have now ... that’s gonna be possible,” senior midfielder Gianna Christiansen said. “We have an extremely solid defense. Just as a team, we are very defensively focused. Becca makes a huge deal (that) we don’t want to be scored on; we don’t want to let any goals in and that’s how we’re gonna win.”
Cortes-Browne
The Wildcats welcome 12 newcomers this season, including 10 freshmen. Moros said they needed depth up top and so they added four forwards in the freshmen class.
“They’ve adjusted really great,” junior defender Maia Brown said of the freshmen. “We have a large bunch of freshmen, which is awesome because it brings so many different talents, so many different skills that we need, we have a lot of good attacking players.”
Including Cortes-Browne, six freshmen played for Arizona during the match at Grand Canyon. Forwards Rose Calkins and Narissa Fults, midfielder Taylor Smith and defenders Kennedy Fletcher and Zoe Mendiola were the others to make their college debuts.
Pacific won its 15th consecutive nonconference home match on Thursday with a 2-1 victory over Houston Christian. Tigers co-head coach Danesha Adams, who went to UCLA, played in the Women’s Professional Soccer and National Women’s Soccer League against Moros.
“I know Danesha Adams, their head coach, really well. We played against each other growing up and we’ve been peers in the pros and around for decades now, so I really respect her,” Moros said. “They’re going to compete and they’re going to be aggressive. They’re going to defend well and hard so I think it’s gonna be another great challenge for us.”
Corner kicks
- On Wednesday, Hisey signed with Spokane Zephyr FC of the USL Super League, a first-team league like the NWSL.
“This brand new league will help shape women’s professional sports in this country,” said Hisey in a press release, “so I’m extremely humbled to be part of its inaugural season.”
The KC Current drafted Hisey, who joined Zephyr assistant coach Brian Periman, who was goalkeeper coach for the UA when she was in college. Periman is a Tucson native that, like Hisey, played for FC Tucson.
The Current waived Hisey earlier this month after they signed German national team goalkeeper Almuth Schult.
The Super League kicks off its inaugural season this weekend, with Tucson scheduled to join in 2025 or later.
- On Thursday, the Big 12 announced that UA’s Oct. 25 match at ASU will be on ESPNU. All of their other Big 12 games and all their home matches will be broadcast on ESPN+, a streaming service.
- Last week, Dallin became Arizona’s first Big 12 Preseason All-Conference Team selection. Last season, the Menifee, California, native started all 19 matches for the Wildcats, recording 20 points and finishing
10th in the Pac-12 in shots.
