Women’s soccer makes final stop on road trip
The uphill climb for the Utah State University women’s soccer team is steadily becoming steeper.
The Aggies will round out the non-conference part of the schedule as they travel to Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon to face their rivals to the south, the University of Utah.
It certainly won’t be an easy one for the Aggies to win.
The Utes (5-1-2) were ranked 23rd in the nation by Soccer Times before they lost their first game of the season at home to Saint Mary’s 2-1 in double-overtime last Sunday.
Prior to Sunday’s game, Utah’s defense was well established in the NCAA rankings.
Ute goalkeepers Lynnsey Asay-Kimball and Courtney Hills-McBeth were ranked nationally in the category of goals-against average.
Asay-Kimball (0.27) was ranked fifth and Hills-McBeth (0.50) placed 16th in the poll.
“It might be a very humbling game for us,” said USU Head Coach Jen Kennedy Croft.
Aggie leading scorer Brigid Turner said the fact the Utes have been ranked this season shouldn’t overwhelm the team a great deal because of the fact USU has jumped out successfully with a 6-2-2 record, the best start in the program’s
history.
“[There is] a little bit [of intimidation],” Turner said. “But we have been playing really well lately, so I’m excited to see how we come out against them.”
USU comes into Wednesday’s contest off of two road wins at the Mountain Classic last weekend. The Aggies downed Boise State and Northern Arizona amidst fierce, cold winds, improving their record to 3-2 on the road.
The Aggies have scored a total of 22 goals this season, holding their opponents to 10. Seven of those 10 have come in the second half.
Utah has given up four goals this season.
Turner said a win would give the Aggies a big boost in confidence going into conference play, but a loss wouldn’t be a big blow.
“I don’t think it would mean too much,” she said. “I think we could deal with it and move on.”
Game time has been changed from 5 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Ute Field.
-samhis@cc.usu.edu