USU women’s soccer team takes winning streak to the road
After winning three-straight Big West Conference games at home, the Utah State women’s soccer team will face a different challenge this weekend as it heads to California to take on Long Beach State and UC Irvine in league play.
Chuck and Gloria Bell Field has been extremely kind to the Aggies this season, dropping only two games – 1-0 losses to Idaho State and Utah.
“I’m pretty excited [for this weekend],” said USU Head Coach Heather Cairns. “This will be a good test for us to be on the road and kind of see what we are made of. We’ve done well at home and now it’s our chance to do well on the road.”
Cal Poly (12-1-1, 3-0-1) and Utah State (9-4-0, 3-0) remain the only perfect teams in conference play, while Long Beach State and UC Irvine are in the middle of the standings.
The 49ers (6-7-0 overall and 2-2-0 in BWC play) split their games last weekend, falling 2-1 to Pacific and then defeating Cal State Northridge 2-1. LBSU is 4-3 this season at home, picking up wins against Eastern Washington, Southern Utah, Weber State and UC Santa Barbara.
Abie Curry and Allison Wiegand lead Long Beach State. The duo has combined for eight goals and four assists this season.
The 49ers’ goalie, Meghan Hartwyk, has a goals-against average of .62 and has recorded three shutouts in more than 700 minutes of play.
UC Irvine (7-3-3, 1-1-1) finished last weekend with a tie against UC Santa Barbara and then lost 2-1 to CS Northridge in overtime.
The Aggies have never defeated the Anteaters. Last season USU fell 1-0 at home.
Hayley McNallan leads UCI with six goals and three assists. Goalie Marissa Welliver has a .55 goals-against average and has six shutouts in 12 matches this year.
“[Both teams] will be good tests because it’s still early and there is not much disparity between the top of the pack and the bottom of the pack,” Cairns said. “It will be a great test because we know we are going to run into two good teams.”
Cairns said the key to picking up victories this weekend is just concentrating on Utah State’s game plan because the team already knows how to adjust to different styles of play and formations.
But because of the tightness of the league, anything can happen.
“If we play well we can play with the best of the conference,” Cairns said. “If we play off we can lose to the bottom of the conference. We are really focusing on what we are doing. We know our game plan and it is really kind of just a matter of us bringing it.”
Aggie forward Charlsie Harris said it is important to win the games against Long Beach State and UC Irvine because of the momentum they can carry. Harris scored the game-winning goal in overtime last week at home to give USU a 1-0 win over Idaho.
“[Winning these games] would be so huge,” she said. “I want to go to the Big West Conference Tournament, and if we can get these two under our belt it would move us one step closer.”
USU goalie Megan Mills is currently ranked 24th in the nation with a goals-against average of .573. The team is ranked 23rd in the same category.
-juag@cc.usu.edu