(Photo: Patty Vicente/ WCSN)
Arizona State’s Nicole Soto considers her sister Ashley Soto as her best friend and “ride or die.”
However, when ASU (6-2-2, 0-0-1 Pac-12) takes on the No. 5 University of Southern California Trojans (7-1-1, 0-1-0) this Thursday, they’ll turn from best friends into enemies. Even if it’s only for 90 minutes.
Although Nicole believes there won’t be any hard feelings regardless of the result, her older sister begs to differ.
“The loving sister in me would tell [Nicole] to be positive and appreciative of the opportunities she is receiving,” the sophomore USC defender said. “The competitive sister in me would probably smack talk to her, but that I would want the best for her no matter what. “
The Soto sisters are 18-months apart and reign from southern California- natives who are Mexican National team teammates and, according to Nicole, are “as close as sisters can get.”
“She’s my best friend and we do the exact same things, which is so rare,” the younger sister said. “From both playing soccer at a young age to playing on the national team in high school and wanting to play collegiate soccer.”
Nicole also admitted just how helpful it was to have Ashley to look up to as a role model growing up for her soccer career.
“It has been nice for her to do everything first and then learn from her experiences and mistakes,” Nicole said. “I definitely think I have more knowledge coming in than the freshmen that didn’t know anything [about the conference]. It’s really helpful to have an older sister.”
Ashley’s support comes in various ways. It can range from a simple text to check up on her younger sister, or it can be giving Nicole some reassurance of why she deserves to be playing collegiate soccer in the Pac-12, a conference that according to Ashley is “super competitive.”
During her freshman season with the Trojans, Ashley and her teammates made it to the third round of the NCAA tournament, which exposed her to competitive soccer at the collegiate level that adds to her resume along with her national team experience.
Despite being Pac-12 opponents during conference play, the sisters will be going against each other for the first time ever in each other’s soccer careers.
“It’s going to be weird because we’ve never done this before,” Nicole admitted.
The weirdness isn’t just felt from Nicole, but also from Ashley.
“We grew up doing everything together,” she said. “In terms of soccer, we have never played against each other our whole lives. Our whole lives we have been so supportive of each other. In our athletic goals, academic goals, we are pretty much inseparable.”
The duo uses their competitiveness and athleticism to push one another in different athletic skills, such as who can run faster. In the end, they only want what is best for the other and are more than willing to help each other out both athletically and personally.
Both sisters have admitted that they rarely even fight and that if they do disagree, then it’s over an item of clothing.
Instead of fighting against one another, they are more than willing to fight for each other.
“I would fight for her against anything and she would do the same for me,” Ashley said. “We’re the best of friends and tell each other everything. We don’t keep anything from each other and we rarely fight. We’re very family-oriented and we put in the effort to try and see each other as much as possible. “
While Nicole said that her parents wouldn’t be choosing favorites for Thursday’s matchup between the two sisters, Ashley likes to believe she has the upper hand, even a little bit.
“Our family actually supports USC,” Ashley said. “My parents both graduated from there and I go to school there, so I do believe I have the upper hand. But our family will support her too and they will support us both.”
The Soto sisters will have to set their relationship aside as the Sun Devils and the Trojans seek to gain ground in competitive Pac-12 play on Thursday at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium in Tempe. Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. MST.
