The ASU soccer team’s already-difficult schedule is about to get tougher.
On Friday, ASU takes on No. 17 California (7-1) in Berkeley, Calif. to open up its Pac-12 season. After dropping their first game of the season to No. 8 Pepperdine, the Golden Bears have won seven straight games, although none of their other games have been against opponents from the six major conferences.
The non-conference schedules between ASU and Cal are in stark contrast to the other, considering teams like No. 16 Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Missouri have tested the Sun Devils.
Cal’s high-powered offense is ranked fourth in the nation, averaging 3.75 goals per game. The Golden Bears have been climbing through the national rankings despite not being ranked two weeks ago.
Senior forward Katie Benz leads the charge for the Golden Bears.
Benz leads the conference with 10 goals in eight games, and has scored in seven games in a row. Her 1.25 goals per game are seventh in all of Division I. She was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on Sept. 6.
“She’s a very good player, what you would call a ‘sniffer,’” Boyd said. “She finds chances in front of goal and when she gets a chance, she’s pretty clinical in her finish… But the best trait about her is that she keeps working till she finds a good chance. So we’re going to have to keep track of her.”
The Sun Devils are aware of the success Cal has had this year, but sophomore defender Jasmine Roth shrugged it off.
“I don’t like to think about that… I would say it’s not something we look at. We focus more on us,” Roth said.
Junior forward/defender Alyssa Freeman agreed with Roth and said the team just needs to perform like it did against Pacific.
“We just need to play like how we played on Sunday and bring it to this game,” Freeman said. “We only have one game (this weekend), so put it all out there.”
The ASU defense could see the majority of the action on Friday against a Cal team known for finding the back of the net.
“Certainly our backline is going to under a little bit of pressure, but the benefit is we’ve played some great teams as well,” Boyd said. “I mean, Virginia’s as good a team as there is out there so we’re not going in and playing somebody that’s different than what we’ve seen yet.”
Typically, the annual face-off against Cal is one of the tightest games ASU plays all year. The last three games between the schools have all gone into overtime. Two of the games tied and the Sun Devils lost the other.
“It seems like we’re always in that stage…I don’t know why,” Boyd said. “It just seems we match up pretty well. It seems to be a pretty even game when we play them.
“I’m a little worried about this year just because their team is obviously on a high with the success they’ve had. They haven’t lost since the first game of the year and our team obviously has been challenged with some injuries.”
Reach the reporter at Justin.Janssen@asu.edu
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