For the second year in a row, the ASU women’s soccer team is headed to the NCAA tournament.
The Sun Devils (9-7-3, 2-4-1 Pac-10) will face No. 11 UC Irvine (17-2-2, 8-0 Big West) on Friday in Irvine, Calif., and will again be in hostile territory after facing Wisconsin in Madison in a first-round matchup last year.
But that doesn’t faze the Sun Devils, who are just happy to be in the tournament, senior forward Jill Shoquist said.
“It feels good, I think we’re all really excited about it,” Shoquist said. “We’ve shown since the beginning of the season that we wanted to go to the tournament and we got there.”
This time around, the team’s experience could help it advance, senior midfielder Alexandra Elston said.
“We’ve played in California before, and we’ve been in the tournament before, so most of us know how it’s going to work,” Elston said.
Last postseason the Sun Devils lost to UW on penalty kicks after finishing overtime tied 1-1. If ASU wins on Friday, they would face either Wake Forest or San Diego.
Stanford, who has been ranked No. 1 since Sept. 28, has the top seed overall, and faces Sacramento State in the first round. Seven teams from the Pac-10 made the tournament, the same number as last year. Only the ACC sent more, with eight teams, including the defending champions, North Carolina.
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
