The ASU women's soccer team will play host to the top-ranked team in the nation tonight when it takes on No. 1 Santa Clara at 7 p.m. at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
The Sun Devils (4-2-0) are currently on a three-game winning streak and are eyeing an upset of the No. 1 Broncos (4-0-1).
"I think we can beat any team," sophomore midfielder Carly Kallas said. "If we are organized [and] come into the game ready and prepared, it's anybody's game."
ASU is 0-3-0 all-time against Santa Clara and has never beaten a No. 1 team in its history.
"That kind of adds another element," Boyd said. "It gives us an opportunity to maybe do some history breaking and pull off a stunner."
This will be the second time the Sun Devils have faced a Top-5 team at home this season. They lost to then-No. 3 Texas, 1-0, on Sept. 7.
Boyd said that having already played a highly ranked team should benefit the Sun Devils tonight.
He added that playing against Santa Clara would help the Sun Devils prepare for the Pac-10 season where they will face powerhouse teams like Stanford and UCLA.
"This is a nice early opportunity for us to compare ourselves to some teams we're really going to be matching up with in the Pac-10," he said.
Kallas said she doesn't pay attention to the rankings and is more concerned about her own team than the Broncos.
"We will prepare for Santa Clara," she said. "But then we're also going to [look at] what we can do against them [and] what ways can we manipulate the game to go towards our favor."
Santa Clara comes into the game unbeaten with wins against San Jose State, Notre Dame, Rutgers and Missouri. The Broncos tied Virginia, 0-0, on Sept. 9.
Last season, the Broncos went 15-5-1 and were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
"They're an extremely well coached team," Boyd said. "They're a program with a history of success and I really think success breeds success."
The Broncos are led on offense by senior midfielder Brittany Klein and redshirt sophomore defender Courtney Lewis, both of whom are tied for the team lead in goals with three.
The Broncos' defense starts with junior goalkeeper Meagan McCray, who was an All-WCC Honorable Mention selection last season.
"Their talent is outstanding," Boyd said. "They're creative and exciting to watch. They play a great brand of soccer."
Boyd added going into the game as an underdog is a win-win situation for the Sun Devils.
"It's all good for us," he said.
ASU is coming off its first weekend sweep of the season as the Sun Devils beat Southern Methodist University 4-1 last Friday and Texas Christian University 2-0 on Sunday.
After a slow start against SMU where the Sun Devils gave up an early lead and were shut out in the first half, they turned it around in the second half and got the comeback win.
"I hope [the SMU game] was a learning experience," Boyd said. "I hope they discovered how bad they can be if they're not focused and ready to go, and on the flipside how good they really are."
During the two games, five different players scored their first goal of the season.
"It's nice to have multiple people scoring because it means an opponent can't focus in on any one player," Boyd said.
Kallas scored her first two goals of the season against SMU and is now tied with freshman forward Karin Volpe for the team lead.
"I just got challenged in the locker room to put my head on some corner kicks and free kicks," Kallas said. "Kevin [Boyd] kind of called me out on it, so I kind of had to come out and put them in the back of the net and I did."
However, the goal Boyd was most impressed with was senior forward Courtney Crane's goal against SMU, which he called a "gritty goal."
"She basically threw her body in front of the clear and managed to take it off her body and into the goal," he said.
The defense also played well as it only allowed one goal the entire weekend, which came off a penalty kick in the first minute against SMU.
