ASU soccer coach Kevin Boyd probably wanted to burn the tape of his team’s last matchup against Texas Tech.
The last time ASU faced the Red Raiders was in 2011, in the Arizona Cats' Classic, and the Sun Devils suffered their worst defeat of the season, a 5-0 loss.
In that game, ASU learned sophomore defender Kaitlyn Pavlovich, now a senior, was dealing with a back injury that would cause her to miss the rest of the season.
“We gave up a goal, and I looked at her and thought something was very wrong,” Boyd said. “She got a fracture in her back. She came out, and it got worse from there.”
Two years later, ASU faces Texas Tech in the same invitational on the same field, though Boyd downplayed the rematch.
“The truth is every team is different (on a yearly basis), so I don’t think that what we did two years ago is going to help us a ton,” Boyd said.
Last season Texas Tech made the NCAA tournament for the first time with an impressive 16-6-1 record and has started the season 5-1 in 2013.
Both teams' ascents into the postseason last year had a lot to do with a freshman phenom.
Now a sophomore, forward Cali Farquharson scored 10 goals for ASU as a freshman and is off to a blistering start in 2013 with seven goals in five games.
Texas Tech sophomore forward Janine Becky amounted 14 goals in her freshman campaign, though she has just three so far in 2013.
After the Sun Devils take on Texas Tech, they’ll face Southern Utah. ASU doesn’t have a ton of information on the Thunderbirds, but it’ll have an initial scouting report and be able to watch their game against UA on Friday.
Southern Utah is 2-3 on the season and lost to Utah, who is in the Pac-12, 6-2 earlier in the season. No one has more than two goals for the Thunderbirds on the season.
ACL tears for Jessica Domenichelli, Andrea Boyd
Kevin Boyd confirmed on Monday his worries that senior forward Jessica Domenichelli tore her ACL in the team’s second game against Texas A&M.“It didn’t look like something that a player would get injured on,” he said. “She was actually running onto a ball with someone right next to her. ... It didn’t look like she hurt it right that moment, and then she takes a step, because she got knocked, but that’s when the right leg buckled a little bit and down she went."
Boyd said the team plans to redshirt her for the season and that she will return to the team next year as a fifth-year senior.
“She still needs to go to school next year anyway because of her major,” Boyd said. “She changed her major in junior college."
Domenichelli started her collegiate playing career at the junior college level, playing for Santa Barbara City College for two seasons before transferring to ASU. As a junior, Domenichelli appeared in just one game, but played in ASU’s first two games in 2013 before her injured.
“You’re allowed to play 30 percent of the season, and it must be in the first half of the season,” Boyd said on the medical redshirt. “If you play 30 percent or less in the first half and then you get a season-ending injury, you can get a hardship waiver.”
Kevin Boyd said the team picked up sophomore goalie Montana Lucky and freshman forward Andrea Boyd in walk-on tryouts earlier in the preseason. However, Andrea Boyd tore her ACL for the third time a couple weeks ago.
“She’s coming off two previous tears to the same knee,” he said last week. “She’s got a big decision ahead of her related to her life."
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11
