Junior forward Devin Marshall handles the ball during a game last season. Fresh from a 4-0 win over NAU last Friday, the Sun Devils travel to Missouri on Friday and conclude their five-game road trip at Kansas on Sunday. (Photo by Aaron Lavinsky)The ASU women's soccer team will conclude its five game season-opening road trip this weekend in the Midwest against No. 18 Missouri and Kansas.
The Sun Devils (1-2) will play their first game Friday against the Missouri Tigers, who are fresh off a 3-2 win on the road against ASU’s fellow Pac-12 member California.
Missouri is led by the two-headed attack of junior forward Alyssa Diggs and senior forward Taiwo Adeshigbin, who have combined to score six goals in the Tigers’s first three games this season.
The Sun Devils counter the Tigers offensive prowess with their own set of goal-scoring forwards, junior Devin Marshall and freshman Cali Farquharson.
Marshall and Farquharson are both coming off a game against NAU last Friday when each player scored two goals for the Sun Devils.
ASU coach Kevin Boyd understands Missouri (3-0-0) will be a tough test, but he is confident in his young team's abilities.
“They (Missouri) are good and very athletic,” Boyd said. “We just need to keep improving our game and go in there and win.”
The Sun Devils and the Tigers last faced off in 2011, when Missouri defeated ASU 1-0 in Tempe to win the Sun Devil Dessert Classic title. Sophomore forward/midfielder Abi Raymer had scored Missouri’s lone goal then and remains on the team this season.
Game time is slated for 4:30 p.m. Friday at Walton Stadium.
The Sun Devils then finish their road trip Sunday afternoon against Kansas.
The Jayhawks (3-0-1) have engineered a balanced attack this year, as five different players have scored so far through four games.
Boyd feels his team has a similar playing style as Kansas’s, which he believes it will help his team better prepare for the Jayhawks.
“I think they are going to look a lot like us,” Boyd said. “I know coach Francis and he plays a similar system to us. He plays more of a possession style. I think it will be a great matchup.”
Kansas's possession style paid off last weekend in the form of two consecutive shutouts against Georgia and UNLV.
In the teams' only previous meeting in 2009, the Jayhawks won 1-0 in Knoxville, Tenn.
Jayhawks head coach Mark Francis is looking for his 150th career win this weekend.
Game time for Sunday’s match is 1 p.m. at the Jayhawk Soccer Complex.
Reach the reporter at dsshap1@asu.edu
