For as much as it may be articulated, it is not until a game starts and the season progresses that individuals begin to come into their own.

It takes time, practices, and all too often, a few mistakes before an individual becomes a part of the team.

This season, it is coming quicker than the ASU women’s soccer team might have anticipated.

“One of the things we’ve been lacking the last couple of years is depth — the ability to sub in some players and have our game either improve with fresh legs or remain at the same level,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “I thought that this last weekend we got a great contribution from the bench.”

The 12 true freshmen, including forward Kiara Williams, who has scored two goals in ASU’s last two games, are an obvious complement to the experience the Sun Devils carried over from last year.

They have stepped into their roles and have begun to play the part of a collegiate athlete.

“Depth is really starting to help us,” Boyd said. “It was critical in the last couple of weeks because we had so many injuries.”

In their only loss of the season, the Sun Devils dropped a 1-0 contest to Kansas. The character they had come out with in their come-from-behind, double-overtime win against Tennessee just days before had vanished, and once they fell behind, they never found a way to come back.

Two weeks later, the Sun Devils found themselves in a similar situation against then-No. 8 Virginia.

But this time, the team found a way to foster the energy to play the Cavaliers to a 1-1 double-overtime tie, suggesting they had found their motivation and developed a chemistry to achieve results on the field.

Friday night, they will take on the San Diego State Aztecs (3-2-1) at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium in their annual Gold Game, a matchup ASU knows it won’t be able to take lightly.

“[SDSU] impressed me last year — I thought they were quite good,” Boyd said. “From what I hear, they’re better this year. ... I thought they absolutely battled against us and outplayed us in many ways at their place last year. The flipside is that we didn’t think we had a very good game last year, so we know we’re going to have to bring a better game and bring a little more of who we are.”

Junior midfielder Cat Walker leads the Aztecs with two goals this season.

The sixth game of their nonconference schedule will allow the Sun Devils to gain more experience, and though they like where they are right now, they know that in order to be successful the team must take the season one game at a time.

“How we do in our nonconference games is going to depict how we get into NCAA [Tournament games],” senior goalkeeper Briana Silvestri said. “It’s important in soccer not to look too far ahead, to take it one game at a time. It’s nice to have one game this weekend — everyone’s still got some bumps and bruises, so having one game is nice for us right now just to get our feet under us again.”

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