Nine days after tying a school record with seven goals, the ASU women’s soccer team will get their first major test of the season when they take on South Carolina.
The nine days between games will be the longest stretch of the season.
“I think that having that break is both good and bad,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “It’s early in the season, they’re energetic, they want to play right now. It’s also good because it’s allowed us to get in better health.”
Sophomore forward Devin Marshall shared the notion that the team wants to get back on the field.
“We are all so ready to play,” Marshall said. “Having that many practices is kind of like a tease, so we don’t look forward to the one game weekends because we have to practice that much more.”
South Carolina is a formidable foe for the Sun Devils. The team has appeared in the NCAA tournament in the last four seasons.
The matchup will be a measuring stick to see how good of a team ASU actually is.
Their 7-0 opening victory over Northern Arizona is great for the stat sheets and record books, but considering NAU plays in the Big Sky Conference, ASU will have to prove their weight against the big programs.
South Carolina (1-1) was ranked 21st in the preseason, but has since dropped out of the top 25 in the NSCAA coaches poll after losing 2-0 to Duke last week.
The Gamecocks will be hampered by the loss of star goalie Mollie Patton to graduation. Patton allowed just .74 goals per game during her career and posted nine shutouts in 25 starts.
However, Boyd said he heard good things about Sabrina D’Angelo, South Carolina’s new starting goalie. “I’ve heard she’s done a nice job marshaling her box,” Boyd said.
South Carolina returns seven of their 11 starters from the 2010 season, including their leader, senior forward Kayla Grimsley. In 2010, she scored 12 goals and assisted on 10 others.
In addition to her successes as a Gamecock, Grimsley has made the national U-20 and U-23 teams.
“We got to be aware of that No. 4 (Grimsley) up top,” Boyd said. “She’s one of their go-to players. They have a couple players with height that are going to cause us potential problems.”
Boyd also said the team learned a lot after last season’s 1-1 draw in Colombia, South Carolina.
“We got to see them last year, we got last year’s knowledge, we know how they play, and we know a couple of their dangerous players,” he said. “We don’t know everything obviously, but we have a fair idea of what we’re facing.
The tactical matchup between the two teams should also be interesting.
“We’re playing a mirror system, which means we’re playing a team who uses the same system we do,” Boyd said.
Marshall said if ASU beats South Carolina, the team’s momentum going into the rest of the season will be “that much higher.”
Reach the reporter at Justin.Janssen@asu.edu
