With just four matches remaining, wins will be needed down the stretch if the 24th-ranked Sun Devil soccer team wants to be playing in the NCAA tournament come mid-November.
ASU will start a run of games against tough Pac-10 opponents that will be vital to its chances of advancing at 7 p.m. today at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
"The final four games, you just have to give everything you have in every single one of them because you can't take anything for granted," ASU head coach Ray Leone said. "I wouldn't say they are must-wins, but Washington, Washington State and us are all in the same boat, so we're just battling right now."
The race in the middle of the Pac-10 is so tight that the fourth-place Sun Devils (10-3-2, 3-2 Pac-10) could climb as high as No. 2 or fall as low as No. 7 after the completion of this weekend's games.
"All four of these teams we're playing next have just as good a chance as us to make it," Leone said. "They only went five-deep last year (in tournament selection in the Pac-10), so we're far from getting in."
Tonight, ASU will host Washington State (8-5-2, 2-1-2), which is less than a week removed from a 2-0 home win against California. The Cougars have multiple threats on offense, as four different players have scored five goals this season.
Junior forward Nicole Wilcox has five assists to lead Washington State in points with 15. The Sun Devils celebrated a 2-1 win over the Cougars when the teams met last season in Pullman, Wash.
"Last year, Washington State outplayed us, but we were fortunate to win," Leone said. "They're a very good, very experienced team. They play a good brand of soccer, so it's going to be an exciting game."
Washington (8-5-3, 3-1-1) will come to town Sunday. Its lone conference loss came at the hands of top-ranked Stanford.
Junior Melissa Bennett has assisted on half of Washington's 32 goals. She has five tallies of her own for a team-leading 26 points.
From an offensive standpoint, three Sun Devils have combined for 48 of the team's 65 points. Freshman forward Elizabeth Bogus leads the way with 21, while freshman midfielders Manya Makoski and Brittany Cooper have 15 and 12, respectively.
Despite the concentration of offense from Bogus, Makoski and Cooper, Leone is not worried about teams focusing their efforts solely on stopping those three players.
"Every player in our front seven, and even (junior defender) Amy (LePeilbet) are capable of scoring," Leone said. "It may be primarily those three, but it's been a team flow to our game. Everyone is getting a chance, they just happen to get on the end of most of them."
ASU enters this weekend with wins in nine of its last 11 games. The Sun Devils swept the Oregon schools last weekend. The victories were especially important after they dropped a pair of home games the previous week to the Los Angeles schools.
"Everyone was waiting to see how we would respond after getting it handed to us by the two California schools, and we responded well," Leone said.
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
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