ASU Soccer: Territorial Cup has tournament ramifications

(Photo: Xavier Litman/WCSN)

Arizona State head coach Graham Winkworth is hoping to exorcise his demons Friday night against the Arizona Wildcats in search of his first victory in the Territorial Cup during his tenure.

Winkworth is in his sixth season at the helm of ASU’s soccer program. In his first five full seasons, he has a record of 0-5-0 against the Wildcats. The Sun Devils have aspirations of playing in the Women’s College Cup and a win against Arizona should ensure that it happens.

However, ASU does not have much momentum coming into this match. The Sun Devils are coming off a 3-1 loss last Sunday to an Oregon State Beavers squad that is now 5-10-3 and 1-8-1 in Pac-12.

Part of the problem on Sunday was that freshman goalkeeper Pauline Nelles had less saves than goals allowed. Nelles has been a big reason why ASU has had success this season, so the Sun Devils are hoping this performance was just an aberration.

The only goal scored for ASU on Sunday was from graduate forward Nicole Douglas, who was just named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. Douglas earned this honor after scoring four goals against the Oregon Ducks last Thursday.

Arizona has a better record than Oregon State at 8-6-3 and 5-4-1 in the Pac-12. ASU could have been playing down to its competition, but the Sun Devils can not afford to do that against their archrival from down south.

The Wildcats are led by junior forward Jordan Hall and freshman midfielder Sami Baytosh, who both have a team-high eight points on the season. Hall leads Arizona in goals with four and Baytosh leads the team in assists with four.

Senior goalkeeper Hope Hisey has only allowed 14 goals, saving 58 shots, and has six clean sheets this season. Hisey has played every minute of every match this season and last season.

One of Hisey’s clean sheets came against No. 14 USC when the Wildcats defeated the Trojans 1-0 on Oct. 6. ASU also played USC, but the Sun Devils lost that matchup 2-1 on Oct. 9.

In addition to USC, ASU and Arizona have also played common ranked opponents such as No. 1 UCLA and No. 7 Stanford, but the Sun Devils and Wildcats lost both of those matchups. Arizona lost to UCLA in a close match 1-0 whereas ASU was thoroughly outplayed, losing 4-0.

The Wildcats have not lost a match since its defeat against UCLA on Oct. 9. This five-match undefeated streak has put Arizona in the conversation of the United Soccer Coaches poll to the point where it received a vote in the most recent poll.

Arizona is a very competitive team with its biggest deficit in a loss being two goals to Stanford. The Wildcats and Sun Devils are ranked fifth and sixth in the standings respectively, so this match has a lot of importance in how the final standings will look. Arizona also has aspirations to play in the Women’s College Cup, so this rivalry will be amplified with postseason ramifications hanging in the balance.