During the first week of school, ASU students have looked at syllabus after syllabus, and have an idea about which assignments will be the most difficult.
The ASU soccer team knows that its first assignment tonight will be one of its toughest. The Sun Devils take on No. 5 Santa Clara at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., at 7 p.m.
It will be Santa Clara's first game since its Final Four appearance in the College Cup last season, where it lost to eventual national champion Notre Dame.
"It's a new year and new players," ASU senior defender Stephanie Ebner said. "We're just going to play our game against them."
One of the new Santa Clara players is former Sun Devil midfielder Kira Sarkisian. After two seasons in Tempe, the Saratoga, Calif., native transferred at the end of last season to be closer to home.
"[Sarkisian] was a good kid," coach Ray Leone said. "We were disappointed that she did transfer, but we understood why."
Santa Clara has defeated the Sun Devils in each of the teams' two previous matches. The most recent game was in 2003, when ASU dropped a 1-0 decision in the second round of the College Cup.
Santa Clara's strength is in its defense. All four seniors on the team are defenders, and junior goalkeeper Julie Ryder had 12 shutouts last season.
ASU senior midfielder Haley Stein said that being patient and not being intimidated would be the keys to scoring goals against the Broncos' defense.
Senior forward Liz Bogus said that ASU had to find chemistry on the field to be successful against the Broncos.
"As long as we don't play as individuals, we play together and look to find each other, I think those are the keys to [scoring]," Bogus said.
Leone said his team was ready for the challenge.
"It's a great team to play first," Leone said. "It's a really exciting opportunity to play such a great program like that. They'll make us play our best, and we won't have a choice."
This will mark the second consecutive year the Sun Devils will open the season against the nation's No. 5-ranked team. Last August, then No. 5 Florida State defeated ASU 3-2 at the Nike Seminole Classic.
Stein said that ASU was a different team this year.
"Last season we had to overcome a lot of obstacles and adversity," Stein said. "We're going to be able to build on our past experiences from last year. We have a lot of seniors this year. Having more [maturity] and experience will help out."
ASU will return to Tempe for its home opener against Weber State on Sunday. ASU defeated the Wildcats 5-1 in 1996, in the school's only previous meeting.
It was the first season soccer was a varsity sport at ASU.
Weber State is coming off a very successful season last year. The Wildcats captured its first Big Sky Conference championship and appeared in the College Cup, despite having an 8-10-2 record.
Weber State started its season with a victory over Southern Utah and Division II Mesa State in two exhibition games.
The Sun Devils will look to keep playing at the high intensity the Santa Clara game will require in order to defeat the Wildcats.
The Sunday match will start at 4 p.m. at the Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
Reach the reporter at thomas.j.kelley@asu.edu.
