There is always something riding on an NCAA Division I contest.
Part of it is pride.
Part of it is passion.
There is always a rival to beat or a spot to secure, and there won’t ever be a collegiate athlete who will tell you anything different.
This weekend, the ASU soccer team is set to host Oregon (7-7-2, 0-4-1) and Oregon State (6-7-2, 1-3-1) for a pair of games that will determine much more than records.
These are ASU’s seniors’ final two home games and their last chance to capture a postseason berth.
“Playing underneath the lights is like nothing you could ever do before, especially at our home stadium,” senior forward Carla Scanniello said. “Knowing it’s the last time we will do that is enough motivation. But on top of that, we have to win these games; we have to sweep this weekend. It’s definitely emotional.”
The Sun Devils (7-5-4, 1-3-1) suffered a 5-0 loss against No. 5 Stanford on Sunday.
It capped off a four-game stretch that exposed them to the Pac-10 Conference’s top four teams (No. 4 UCLA, No. 10 USC, Cal and Stanford).
“We saw some great teams last weekend, especially Stanford,” senior defender Kylla Sjoman said. “They’re dynamic, … and we want to play like that. We saw the top and now we want to get there.”
Coach Kevin Boyd said the level of this weekend’s competition comes as welcomed relief.
“We start to meet teams that are the same as us now,” he said.
In order to do that, Boyd said the team has to control the tempo of the game.
“We haven’t been able to do that a lot recently,” he said. “We’ve been mostly [been] defending and countering. Now we’re going to have an even game where we need to possess and attack and try to run the rhythm of the game.”
Junior Briana Silvestri will return to starting at goalkeeper after missing the Stanford game last weekend due to injury.
Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.
