For most of the ASU soccer team, the Pac-10 regular season has come and gone.

It has been weeks of battle in a war that didn’t exactly go as the Sun Devils had planned.

The early season mentality they had developed and the new experience the freshmen obtained are all building blocks for the foundation of next year’s team — they have a chance to do it all again.

For the seniors, though, it’s been a different experience.

With the loss of their top-20 ranking and star goalkeeper Briana Silvestri, many of the hopes they had for their last year as college athletes were lost, too.

But even with a 7-7-3 (0-6-1 Pac-10) record and the drop to No. 37 in the national rankings, the Sun Devil seniors have remained optimistic and grateful for their experience at ASU.

Defender Liz Harkin, a recruit of former coach Ray Leone, experienced a full circle with the team under the direction of head coach Kevin Boyd.

“From last year to this year, our team is completely different,” she said. “The personnel, our attitudes, our mindsets; it’s just completely different. We have a lot more skill than we did last year with the heart with the competitiveness with the drive.

“And then we have the young players who are adding a ton to our program, and we have the older players who are guiding the younger players and I think as a whole we are more cohesive. We work better together on and off the field.”

In its final weekend of the Pac-10 season, the team will face off against Oregon State and Oregon and put forth an effort to rediscover the mentality they had in the first half of the season, where the success didn’t come with overwhelming talent.

Last season, the Sun Devils fell to UO in a game that ended 1-0 with the only score coming 24 seconds into the game. The team bounced back to down OSU 1-0 on Senior Day.

This weekend, the Sun Devils hope to return to that culture they had started to develop in their final games of the regular season last year.

And as the seniors head into their final home weekend, they express optimism for the future.

“I’m excited for the program,” Silvestri said. “Since Kevin has come in, the program has done a 180 on itself. He is an amazing recruiter; he is a great coach —he has changed the culture so much, and the program, after this year, it will go big places. I’m excited to watch. Hopefully I get to come out years and years to come.”

The Sun Devils are set to match up against OSU on Friday night at 7 p.m. before taking on UO on Sunday at 1 p.m., in a game where they will honor Harkin, Silvestri and senior midfielder Carly Kallas.

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