Diera Walton: Bucket getter and goal preventer
The Utah State women’s soccer team celebrated their seniors with a 2-1 senior day win over the University of Nevada on Sunday, Oct. 12.
The game was a fitting showcase of the team’s two fifth-year seniors, with graduate forward Nicole Hadlock-Hardy scoring the eventual game-winning goal, and graduate keeper Diera Walton recording two saves and only one goal allowed en route to the win.
The game win marked the eighth Mountain West conference win of the season for the Aggies, which is a new record for the most season conference wins in Utah State’s history. The lone goal conceded was the first goal Walton had allowed in 344 minutes of gameplay, having held a zero on the visiting side of the scoreboard in three straight contests as the Aggies swept a four-game homestand.
“We have a group of individuals … that I think are peaking at the right time in their career,” head coach Manny Martins said. “The combination of the maturity and experience in our backline and our midfield, with Diera’s quality, has really put us in a position to be able to compete with some of the best teams in the country.”
Walton has held opponents scoreless in seven contests this year, including a 1-0 home win over No. 1-ranked Brigham Young University earlier this year. But posting shutouts is nothing new for Walton. Her 28 career clean sheets are the best in Utah State’s program history.
In her five years as the starting keeper at Utah State, Walton has broken just about every goalkeeper record in the books. She ranks fourth in the nation in goalie minutes played, having played 1,643 of 1,710 possible minutes. She is also fifth amongst active keepers in career minutes played with 7,324.
Some teams will look to make a change in the net at halftime as part of a strategic move, but Martins trusts Walton with all 90 minutes.
“(Walton) is playing really, really well. She’s confident and she provides leadership on the field,” Martins said. “We typically don’t make a lot of changes in the backline and the goalkeeper.”
This year, Walton has benefitted from a stifling Aggie defense that has kept opposing attacks from getting good shots off. While Utah State’s 67 saves are the least in the Mountain West, it’s because the Aggies have allowed fewer shots than any other team in the conference.
So far, they are allowing less than one goal a game (0.84). The next best in that category is a tie between Boise State and San Diego State with 1.11 goals allowed per game.
Walton is from Draper and went to Jordan High School, where she notably did not play soccer.
A multi-sport athlete, Walton instead competed in basketball and volleyball, also competing in track and field “just a little bit” during her senior year.
© CWild Photography Keeper Diera Walton for USU getting the ball during the game, Oct. 12, 2023.
“Soccer recruiting for girls, it’s kind of through club soccer,” Walton said. “Usually when high school was going on, I would just play volleyball. And then right after, we would have soccer and I would also do basketball. So, I kind of did two sports at the same time.”
Walton, who also had an offer to play basketball at Utah State, says soccer was not even her favorite sport in high school.
“I mean, I was pretty good at all of them, to be honest. But basketball is my favorite,” she said.
Martins believes Walton’s multi-sport background is part of what makes her such a great goalkeeper.
“I like athletes to have a background in multiple sports. I do think that crossover actually helps. I think that’s part of why eye-hand coordination and ability to catch most everything correlates a little bit from (Walton’s) background in basketball,” Martins said. “I see that a little bit with people who played softball, again reading the flight of the ball and footwork and things that correlate.”
That hand-eye coordination from a young age is how Walton originally became a goalkeeper.
“Funny story,” she said. “I was at tryouts, and we’re playing a game called Lightning and I was in the goal. Someone shot a hard shot and I just reached up and caught it. And so my coach is like, ‘Hey, I’ll give you a candy bar if you play goalkeeper’ — ever since then I just stuck with goalkeeper.”
Walton believes the arrival of Martins and his experience has helped the program take a step forward.
“Manny, he’s very loving. He wants us to do better, and so he’s willing to help us in any part of our journey,” she said. “I think that’s something that I have really loved about him. He wanted to build a culture that was just very loving and very supportive. I think that’s why he’s so successful because we’re learning every single day. We feel like we are challenged every single day and like resilience is a big part of our culture.”
Martins was named head coach in 2021 and had an immediate impact on the program. The Aggies won more games in 2021 than any Aggie team had won in the Mountain West era, and they qualified for the Mountain West Conference tournament for the first time since 2016.
Perhaps the players’ favorite trait of Martins is his undefeated record against in-state rival BYU. In his three seasons as head coach, the Aggies are 2-0-1 against the Cougars. The Cougars have been ranked in the top 25 in all three matchups, most notably No. 1 earlier this year. When asked about her favorite USU soccer memory, Walton’s answer was easy:
“I would have to say beating BYU. That’s just like a classic.”
Walton was named to the all-conference second team by the Mountain West Conference following the end of their conference schedule. The team posted a 9-2 record in MW play, a program record for conference wins in a season.
The team now travels to Laramie, Wyoming, to compete at the Mountain West Championship. Earning the program’s highest-ever seed in the tournament, the 2-seed Aggies will have a bye in the first round, then face the winner of 3-seed Boise State and 6-seed Nevada on Wednesday, Nov. 1, in the semifinals.