Women’s soccer plays first home game Sunday
Utah State University’s women’s soccer kicks off its home opener this Sunday with a game against Nebraska-Omaha at the Legacy fields at 1 p.m. USU is currently 0-2-0 looking to rebound after a 0-2 loss at Missouri State a week ago.
Utah State has started the season 0-2 for the first time since 2005. The Aggie women are hoping to turn the season around and keep their home winning streak alive—they have won their last six home openers. The Omaha Mavs started off the season with a 2-0 victory over Incarnate Word. The Mavs visit Logan with 1-0-0 record and will aim to snap the Aggies home winning streak.
Last season the Aggies went 10-7-5 overall while posting a 5-3-2 record in conference play. It was their first year playing in the newly reconstructed Mountain West Conference. They advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament last year where they ultimately fell to San Diego State, who went on to win the conference title.
This year, senior defenders Brooke Larson-Leavitt and Taryn Rose were named to the 2014 first team MWC preseason all conference team. Sophomore Jayne Robison was named to the second team. Taryn Rose was also selected to be the 2014 MWC preseason defensive player of the year.
Aggie standouts Jennifer Flynn, Larson-Leavitt and Rose were each named to the All Mountain West Team for the 2013 season. Two other Aggies, Lexie Henrie and Mari Miyashiro, were named to the Mountain West All Tournament Team. To go along with these awards, 17 Aggies earned Academic All Mountain West Honors and 13 were selected as Mountain West Scholar Athletes.
USU has 17 letterwinners returning and seven starters from the 2013 season. Complimenting the returning players are a group of nine new freshman who add to the depth of the team. Five freshmen have already seen action on the field this year.
“The nice thing about our team right now is we’re deep,” said 12 year head coach Heather Cairns, the winningest soccer coach in school history. “That means it’s more competition day in and day out at practice. We’re going to play the best players and the best players who click. It’s really enhanced our competitive environment at training and I think that’s going to be a benefit to us and we’ll see the results on the field.”
Historically, USU has done well within its conference. In eight years in the WAC, they won three titles outright in 2012, 2011 and 2008, tied for first in 2010 and took second three other years. The Aggies placed fifth last year in their first season as a Mountain West team. In the 2014 season Utah State has been selected to finish fifth in the MWC according to preseason coaches polls. Despite what the polls are saying Cairns seems to believe the Aggies have what it takes to win.
“Our expectations are to do well and win conference, we want to give ourselves a shot to win the conference tournament and represent our conference in the NCAA tournament.” Cairns said.
On Sept. 5 USU will finish off a two game home stand by playing Idaho State at 4 p.m. They will then play two away games before coming home on Sept. 19 and 21 to take on the University of Utah and UC Riverside.
Conference play will start on Sept. 26 at Colorado College, the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West. MWC games will continue until October 31 when Utah State wraps up its season at Boise State. The conference tournament will be held Nov. 4-8 in San Diego, California.
Twitter: @kalen_taylor