Lady Ags used entire season to prepare for soccer conference final
With one game remaining in the regular season, the Utah State women’s soccer team is on the verge of clinching their second consecutive Western Athletic Conference regular season championship.
The team currently has a 10-2-6 overall record and are 5-0-2 in conference play. The only remaining game left on the schedule for USU is a home match against second-place Louisiana Tech.
“We have set ourselves up to win the outright regular season championship next week,” USU head coach Heather Cairns said. “If we win, the worst we can do is be co-champs.”
USU senior defender Natalie Norris was named one of 10 finalists for the 2012 Senior CLASS Award in collegiate soccer. The award is given to student-athletes who excel both on and off the field.
“(Norris) is obviously a stud on the field but if you know her off the field, you know about her character, commitment to academics and commitment to the community,” Cairns said. “She is the total package.”
Norris said she is humbled by the experience.
“I honestly didn’t think I would make it into the top 10,” Norris said. “To see all the publicity that has been going around to get votes for me has made me even more humble, and so grateful for the support from the school, my teammates, my family and friends.”
The Aggies began their 2012 campaign with wins over Southern Utah, Utah and UTEP. The game against Utah was on the road at Rio Tinto Stadium and was decided in overtime when junior Jennifer Flynn scored the golden goal.
“Coming from last year, we know we have a target on our backs and I think we are playing up to that,” Flynn said. “I think we are just continuously getting better and better.”
The Aggies remained undefeated with a 1-1 tie with Creighton and a 3-1 win over Nebraska.
USU’s unbeaten ways changed with a 1-0 loss despite outshooting Northern Colorado 18-5.
“We started the season doing well just not our best we knew we could do more,” Norris said. “As we progressed throughout the season, we got up big for some huge opponents including the top-25 teams. We played probably our best games of the season against them.”
USU beat Utah Valley and Eastern Washington before facing three ranked teams in Washington, BYU and Denver during a six-game stretch. The Aggies were winless in those six, but lost only once and scored two goals.
&nbs
p;
“The most difficult part has been putting the team together and getting them to peak at the right time,” Cairns said. “In the beginning of the season we weren’t losing games, we were tying an awful lot.”
The Aggies made history against Washington by being the first team to tie against a ranked opponent with a 59th minute Flynn goal.
USU played in nine overtime games, winning three and tying six. Despite not beating any of their ranked opponents, Cairns said the Aggies faired very well with two ties and just a 1-0 loss to BYU.
“I think those games gave us a lot of confidence and in the end we were a little bitter about not winning, particularly against Washington,” Cairns said. “If we are fortunate to make it to the NCAA tournament… That’s more than likely the type of team we would meet, and having that experience under our belt would be a great thing for us.”
Since their six game winless streak, the Aggies have gone on another streak. USU has won five straight games, and all those wins coming in conference play. The team has scored 13 goals while allowing two.
“We had that dry spell of 0-0 ties for a little bit, or any type of tie, but we finally able to connect after a whole week of practice where we just worked on offense,” Norris said. “We finally opened the gates of scoring with our first WAC weekend at home, and after that it has been putting the details on the field.”
USU defeated UTSA and Texas State 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. They traveled to Seattle and Moscow and won 2-1 over Seattle University and 3-1 against Idaho. Their latest game was a 1-0 route of San Jose State University.
“We have matured and gelled throughout the season,” Cairns said. “Our defense has been solid throughout and that’s kept us in a lot of games. Our attack is maturing and our ability to possess is maturing. I feel like we are peaking at the right time going into the conference tournament.”
The win over San Jose gave coach Cairns reached a milestone – She became the winningest coach in program history with 100 wins. Over her last 10 years at the helm of the USU soccer program, Cairns has amassed a 100-77-25 record.
Flynn leads all USU scorers with six goals followed by Tarver and junior Mari Miyashiro with four goals each. Mulford and the Aggie defense have earned eight shutouts this season.
“Our biggest asset on defense is just our cohesiveness, we always work really well together and we always cover for each other no matter what,” Norris said. “We know if we go up for a ball there will be someone behind us, or if someone pulls forward we will have someone filling in. Knowing we have that trust within each other it gives us a whole other level that we can play on, and know we can do the best that we can by working as a unit.”
The Aggies are peaking at the right time with just one regular season game remaining on their schedule against Louisiana Tech on Oct. 29 at home.
– jborba@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @JBorba15