The ASU women's soccer team plays its home opener this weekend when it takes on a pair of defending conference champions at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
The Sun Devils (1-1-0) will play No. 3 Texas (2-0-0) at 7 p.m. tonight before matching up against UNC-Charlotte (2-0-0) on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Both games will mark the first time the Sun Devils have faced either opponent in women's soccer.
Sophomore goalkeeper Briana Silvestri said that she knows the Sun Devils will not be favored against the highly ranked Longhorns, but does not mind being in that position.
"I'd rather be the underdog going into the game like that," she said. "I think our team is ready."
Silvestri said the key to pulling the upset would be matching up better on defense against a strong Longhorn offense.
ASU head coach Kevin Boyd said that if the team continues to show constant improvement and plays to its abilities, then it could get the win.
"[Texas is] a very good team, so we're going to have to do some things well," he said. "Our goal is obviously to get better every game, and we did that last weekend and we need to take another step forward against them and I believe if we play to our potential then we can beat them."
ASU has lost 12 straight games to opponents ranked in the top five, with its last win coming in 2001 against then-No. 2 Stanford.
The Sun Devils split their first two games of the 2007 season at the UNLV Adidas Classic in Las Vegas last weekend by defeating Idaho State, 1-0, last Friday before falling to UNLV, 2-1, last Sunday.
Junior forward Carla Scaniello and freshman forward Karin Volpe are currently tied for the team lead in goals with one each, but Boyd said that sophomore defender Liz Harkin has been the most impressive player to him thus far.
"I would say Liz overall has been our most consistent player so far," he said. "I think she's done very well and unfortunately it's not going to show up on the stat sheet. I think we've had different players step up at different times but not carry the same consistency [as Harkin]."
Texas is coming off arguably the biggest win in program history as it upset then-No. 2 UCLA last Sunday in Houston.
The Longhorns subsequently shot from No. 9 to No. 3 in the polls.
The Longhorns are the defending Big 12 Tournament champions and are led by two returning NCSAA All-Americans in junior defender Kasey Moore and senior forward Kelsey Carpenter. Both players are currently tied for the team lead in goals (2) and points (4).
After the game with the Longhorns, the Sun Devils will square off against UNC-Charlotte on Sunday in another non-conference battle.
Like Texas, Charlotte is their conference's defending champion and is led by a mixture of veterans and young players.
Charlotte returns two All-Atlantic 10 honorees from last season in senior forwards Nikki Labuda and Lindsay Ozmek, while freshman Whitney Weinraub was named Atlantic 10 Co-Rookie of the Week Tuesday.
For the Sun Devils, this weekend is about getting the rest of the nation's attention, especially tonight against Texas.
"This game is the game to earn respect," junior defender Kylla Sjoman said of Friday's showdown. "I think our team is getting better and better every day so this is the chance to prove ourselves against a quality team."
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
