USU soccer is a ‘team to look out for’
LOGAN — After being projected to finish seventh in the Mountain West last season, the Utah State Soccer program completely exceeded expectations. With a 13-6-3 record, 5-4-2 in conference, the Aggies made it to the Mountain West Conference semi-final and lost 1-2 in overtime to the eventual champions, New Mexico.
Despite losing key goal scorers, Kami Warner and Ashley Cardozo, who signed with FC Nantes in France, the Aggies return players that scored 17 goals, which was 56% of goals scored last season.
The Aggies also announced on Aug. 17 that their second year head coach, Manny Martins, agreed to a contract extension through the 2025 season.
The biggest returning contributor according to point totals for the Aggies is senior Sara Taylor. She started in all 22 games and was seventh on the team in total minutes, tied for second in goals with six and finished second in assists with five.
The Aggies also return Alaskan forward Jordan Foraker, 2021 minutes leader Kelsey Kaufusi, star goalkeeper Diera Walton and forward Sammie Murdock who accounted for six goals last season.
In addition to training at USU, two Aggies played for Minnesota Aurora FC in the USL Women’s League during the summer to prepare for the season. Sophomore defenders Kaufusi and Addy Symonds took the trip to the land of 10,000 lakes.
“Training in Minnesota was awesome, it was high intensity and great competition the entire time. It was good to train with high level players,” Kaufisi said. “I think it’s going to be a great year, so many people have improved over the summer.”
Symonds received the 2022 USL Women’s League Goal of the Year award for her incredible shot against South Georgia Tormenta FC. Symonds launched a ball from nearly 30 yards out to the left 90 past the outstretched arms of the goalie.
A goal fit for the Final. Addy Symonds ties it up in the 22nd minute! pic.twitter.com/jxXDfM8Rib
— Minnesota Aurora FC (@MNAuroraFC) July 24, 2022
“It was really cool,” Symonds said with a laugh. “I saw a break and thought I might as well shoot it. Not a lot of thought that went into it but it went where I wanted it.”
The Aggies welcomed two junior college transfers this offseason with Emma Fry coming from Salt Lake Community College and Rine Yonaha from Snow College. Fry scored three goals and had eight assists in her final season for the Bruins while Yonaha scored two goals and five assists for the Badgers, including a game-winning goal against Fry and the Bruins.
Despite the roster being senior heavy, Martins believes there’s a freshman who can come in and contribute at the start of the year.
“The potential to make an impact right away is Kaylie Chambers. Those two–Chambers and Fry–will make an impact immediately.”
Even with new players and improvement from returners, replacing your best player in Ashley Cardozo is not easy. She accounted for seven goals and 11 assists last season. But Martins thinks that it’s a team effort rather than an individual effort to replace the production.
“We have quite a bit of depth in the midfield this season, the newcomers are hungry and fighting for positions. We have the potential to actually become better in the midfield this season,” Martins said. “Everyone has the opportunity to step up.”
Utah State was given a little more respect in this year’s preseason poll as they were voted to finish fifth in the conference.
“We are a team to look out for. We are going to do super well, we are doing well now, and we are not a team to be messed with,” Symonds said.
The Aggies have quality opponents in this season’s non-conference schedule as they face the likes of Texas, Utah and BYU. Last season, Utah State traveled to Provo, Utah and gave the eventual NCAA College Cup runners up their only home loss, winning 2-1 in overtime. BYU will travel to Logan on Sept. 15 where the Aggies were 9-3 last season at Chuck and Gloria Bell Field.
One change to watch this year is the NCAA announcement made this summer that there will be no overtimes in regular season matches effective immediately. The Aggies went 4-2-3 last season in overtime matches.
With key players returning, incoming transfers and freshmen making immediate impacts the Aggies aren’t messing around. This season they are looking for their first Mountain West Conference Championship appearance.
Utah State’s first home game is against Idaho State on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 4 p.m.