There’s certain energy at the beginning of the season that is unsurpassed by any other time during the year.

It is synchronized chaos — a challenge and a sigh of relief. It is learning as an individual and developing as a team.

It is the putting together of pieces in the pursuit of success that allow players to find their focus, and the obstacles they face that allow them to discover personal strengths and weaknesses.

This weekend is no different.

For the ASU women’s soccer team, the Sun Devil Desert Classic prompts enhanced competition and encourages the Sun Devils to develop both individual and team skills when they take on Old Dominion on Friday and No. 8 Virginia on Sunday.

“We have a few focuses this week, and starting faster is one of them,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “It’s dominating the beginning of the game — the first five minutes specifically — and carrying that on.”

Last Friday, the Sun Devils beat No. 23 Tennessee in double overtime, suggesting early in the season that they are ready to step up to the challenge of facing a top-25 opponent.

“I think people are obviously starting to get more comfortable with each other,” junior midfielder Lindsey Johns said. “We are integrating the freshmen and learning how each other play.”

But the slow start the Sun Devils were able to overcome at Tennessee came back to defeat them in Sunday’s game against Kansas.

“The Sunday game wasn’t the same game as the Friday game,” Boyd said.

“We didn’t bring the same energy and effort. I know we were fatigued
from Friday, but everyone is fatigued from Friday. That’s just the way it goes. You have to get out of your head and put it out there, and that’s what we’re trying to learn.”

This week, the Sun Devils continued the process by adding extra practices — going double days on both Tuesday and Wednesday — to prepare for this weekend’s games.

“The morning session is just a quick hour of straight technique because we were so bad with the ball technically [last weekend],” Boyd said. “If we can’t trap it without giving it to the other team or pass it to our team, we can’t even play the game. We have to firm up some technique just to get started.”

ODU comes into Tempe with a 2-1 record. The Lady Monarchs are led by freshman midfielder/forward Ashlee Coutu, who was named the Colonial Athletic Association Co-Rookie of the Week on Monday after notching a pair of game-winning goals against George Washington and High Point University last weekend.

UVA is also 2-1 on the season and coming off of a pair of home wins last weekend, where the Cavaliers outscored Liberty and Hofstra by a combined score of 12-0. Freshman forward Caroline Miller is the reigning ACC Co-Player of the Week after she racked up three goals and four assists last weekend.

In terms of their plan for this weekend, everything remains the same — the Sun Devils are going to go out and play their game.

“We’re trying to develop us,” Boyd said. “Even though we know Old Dominion is a very good team — they’re coming off two good wins — we are going to take them the same way we took last weekend. But, hopefully we learned some lessons that were taught to us last weekend. That’s the critical piece. I have to see a better team Friday than what played Sunday.”

Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.