(Photo: Michael Gutnick/ WCSN)
The Arizona State Sun Devils (6-4-2, 0-2-1) will travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Washington Huskies (6-3-2, 2-1-0) on Tuesday and the No. 15 Washington State Cougars (9-2-0, 2-1-0) on Sunday for their first Pac-12 road trip of conference play and their first road trip since September 15.
Coming into Thursday’s competition, the Sun Devils will continue to look for their first conference win of the 2019 season. During the first two weeks of play, ASU has drawn Utah, then lost to No.5 USC and No. 16 UCLA, all three matches at home in Tempe. The pair of recent losses marked the second time this season that the Sun Devils have dropped games to their opponents in back-to-back matches.
ASU will look to rebound after the rough start in Pac-12 play and plan on doing that on the road.
“Road games count just as much as your home games,” sophomore Nicole Douglas said. “We have to prepare and be ready for every single game.”
The Sun Devils aren’t the only ones who remain unranked, but so are the Huskies. Washington is 4-1 in their last five games, and even kicked-off Pac-12 play with a 2-0-0 record before taking their first loss to No. 2 Stanford on the road. The 2-0-0 start is the first time the Huskies have had a start like that since 2010.
During the meetings between the Sun Devils and the Huskies, ASU has a 9-9-4 all-time record against Washington, with a 4-7-1 record in Washington as the visiting opponent. The Sun Devils haven’t lost to Washington since 2014.
ASU will then go on to face the No. 15 Washington State Cougars in an afternoon matchup at WSU’s Lower Soccer Field.
The Devils have a 13-10 record against the Cougars and defeated them 3-1 in Tempe last season. with Marleen Schimmer and Eva Van Deursen being the only two players on the current roster who scored in that game. However, this season is completely different.
The Cougars are currently ranked No. 26 in the nation in scoring with an average of 2.36 goals per game and with 26 total goals as of now.
WSU is currently coming off a road trip of their own after splitting two games in the Bay Area, with a loss to No. 2 Stanford and a 1-0 overtime win against No. 20 California.
Their 2-1-0 conference record is enough to put them tied for second place in the conference two weeks into Pac-12 play.
Meanwhile, the Sun Devils are currently sitting in second to last place with just one point, and barely sit ahead of Oregon thanks to their good start in non-conference play.
A struggle-point for ASU in recent games has been their lack of being able to find the back of the net, which is due to a lot of changes that they have had to get adjusted to since Pac-12 play has started.
The biggest adjustment is dealing with the absence of Dutch nationals, Van Deursen and Lieske Carleer, both whom have been away from the team for two weeks due to reporting for the Netherlands national team training camp.
“Hopefully in these next couple of games we will have a lot of more offensive players playing higher,” Douglas said.
Douglas is one of the offensive players that has had to fall back to playing Van Deursen’s midfield position in her absence, a position she explained she has never played before.
However, they are both expected to be back and with the team by Thursday’s match against Washington.
For a team that is looking to make the NCAA tournament in November, every game is just as important as the last. For head coach Graham Winkworth, it is important for the team to keep its composure and deliver a strong performance for all 90 minutes.
“Like I said to the girls, we’ve got to put in two solid performances, regardless of the result,” the head coach said. “Two solid performances in one weekend because that is what professional players do.”
ASU’s third week of conference play will kick off on Thursday at 7 p.m. PST against the Huskies and they will then close out the weekend on Sunday against the No. 15 Cougars at 1 p.m. PST.
