Sometimes, it just doesn’t matter how well a team performs on the field.
The things went over in practice may not come together how it hoped, and the chemistry may not be obvious.

It is in these games where the mentality — not just the physical talent — of a team matures.

The season might be about wins and losses, but for the ASU women’s soccer team, each game gives the team another chance to develop what it takes to get those wins.

“Winning is a mentality, and once you start to develop that, it makes it very hard for other teams to beat you,” ASU coach Kevin Boyd said. “You start carrying around this belief that you should win and you’re going to fight through for that end. If we’re starting to develop that, I like it. It’s early to say that we have that for sure, but it’s an example that maybe we’re developing it.”

This weekend, the Sun Devils (4-1-1) will have another chance to continue working toward that mentality when they head to the Midwest to take on Creighton on Friday and Nebraska on Sunday.

“We are going into a very challenging weekend,” Boyd said. “If you look at stats on both Creighton and Nebraska, not only are they winning games, but they’re winning them in a dominating style.”

Creighton is currently on a four-game winning streak, including two victories in last weekend’s Adidas Husker Classic.

ASU is 2-0-0 all-time against Creighton and has scored nine goals against the Bluejays.

And although the Sun Devils have never faced Nebraska in a regular-season match, they fell to the Huskers 3-1 in the spring season.

“Both programs are doing extremely well right now, so we’ve got our hands full this weekend, that’s for sure,” Boyd said. “We need to bring a better game than we’ve been playing.”

Last weekend ASU topped San Diego State 2-1 in overtime in a game that didn’t necessarily showcase everything the team had been working on.

“As a program, we didn’t take away that many positives,” Boyd said. “The positives were character and finding a way to win, scoring two set piece goals, winning in overtime, things like that. But in terms of our game and our development, we weren’t pleased with the performance. We all think that our soccer on the field needs to improve quite a bit.”

Though it might not have been happy with its performance on the field, the team recognizes how the win not only improves its record, but showcases its character.

“I think it’s more of the character of our team coming through after not playing a very good game,” junior midfielder Alexandra Elston said. “Getting the overtime win is always a good win.”

This level of competition holds the team to a higher standard of performance on the field — a challenge Boyd feels will strengthen the team as they continue to get closer to the start of the Pac-10 season.

“You can’t perform at the high level until you’re faced with the challenge of it,” he said. “I think that’s absolutely what we need.”

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