Aggie Soccer Takes Pitch Thursday To Open 2006 Season
Utah State head soccer coach Heather Cairns opens her fourth season at the helm of the Aggies when USU takes the pitch Thursday.
“This is always an exciting time,” Cairns said. “We’re anxious to get things going and prepare for the upcoming season.”
The Aggies open 2006 by hosting Dixie College on Saturday, Aug. 19 at 1 p.m. at Chuck & Gloria Bell Soccer Field. USU kicks off its 20-match regular season schedule Aug. 25 against Idaho State at Pocatello, Idaho, before returning home to host intra-state rival Weber State on Aug. 29.
“The key to this season’s success will be how well we can retain the growth that we saw throughout last year,” Cairns said. “If we can retain all that growth, it gives us a great building block to start the season on.”
The Aggies ended last season with a 5-2-1 mark in their last eight regular season games. USU was beaten 2-1 in the first-round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament by Fresno State, which advanced to win the conference championship and represented the WAC in the NCAA National Tournament.
“We have the hard workers, we have the fitness, we have the experience, now it is just putting all that together, but you can’t put that together unless you have a good foundation,” Cairns said. “I feel that we laid that foundation down last year and got more successful as the season went on and we were very successful this spring.”
USU, which was tabbed fifth in the WAC Soccer Coaches’ Preseason Poll, has 19 returning letterwinners and six starters from last season’s squad that went 7-9-4 on the year, including 4-2-1 in WAC play.
Headlining the returners is senior forward Charity Weston, who was named first-team all-WAC last season, and with a repeat first-team honor can become the first player in USU history to be tabbed to the first-team all-conference list three-straight seasons. Weston led the Aggies and ranked fifth in the WAC with seven goals, as well as leading USU and ranking tied for fifth in the WAC with 18 points (seven goals, four assists).
Also returning is junior midfielder Dana Peart, who was second on the team with five goals, adding an assist for a total of 11 points. Another returner to the Aggie lineup is senior forward Charlsie Harris, who missed the 2005 season with an injury. Harris was second on the squad with six goals in 2004.
Weston and fellow senior midfielder Sierra Smith will be the 2006 team captains. Smith was tied for third on the team in points with seven on two goals and three assists.
Cairns welcomes eight newcomers to the ranks as well, the smallest freshman class under Cairns since seven in her first season in 2003.
Entering her fourth season, Heather Cairns, already the winningest coach in USU soccer history by percentage, is just four wins shy of becoming the winningest head coach in Aggie soccer history for total victories. In her three seasons at the helm of Utah State, Cairns has compiled a 23-27-7 (.465) record, sitting four wins shy of Stacy Enos (1996-2000), who went 26-59 (.306) in five seasons with the Aggies.
Counting the exhibition match on Aug. 19, Utah State has nine home matches this season.
Admission to all USU soccer matches is free.