Ali Doller heads the ball during the game against Kansas at a tournament in Tempe. Doller used to play for ASU, until she was injured and moved to Tucson to join the Wildcats. (Photo by Arianna Grainey)Ali Doller was once a freshman phenom with the ASU women's soccer team.
An ACL tear ended her freshman season prematurely, and a dismissal from the team ended her Sun Devil career before it really even began.
After a year-long stint at Paradise Valley Community College, where she won a national championship, Doller has returned to the Pac-12, except this time she is donning a UA Wildcats uniform.
The Territorial Cup Series rivalry always produces compelling drama, but it has grown to new heights this year with the return of Doller.
“We played in ASU’s tournament up there earlier in the season, and I had my Arizona gear on, and I was going to grab something to eat, and people were making me aware that I had the enemy’s colors on,” UA coach Tony Amato said. “You definitely feel it right away.”
Life as a Sun Devil
Doller, a Tempe native, instantly rose to Sun Devil stardom as a freshman. In her first career game, she entered off the bench and scored two goals in an opening day rout.From that point on, the Sun Devils knew they had a special talent and Doller continued to do what she does best – score and score some more.
She tallied five goals in the team’s first seven games and was the Sun Devils’ leading scorer, but her season then took a tragic turn in Sept. 2011, when she tore her ACL in a practice. The injury ended her season only a month after it began.
“It was tough, it gets painful, and it’s hard," Doller said of her rehabilitation. "You have to go to therapy every day, but you have to do it.”
ASU’s season unraveled after Doller's injury. The Sun Devils started 4-4 in non-conference play with Doller in the lineup, but went just 4-7 after her injury. Doller was still ASU’s leading goal scorer until just two games remained in the season, and the team finished without going to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
“It was a major blow to our program when she got injured,” ASU coach Kevin Boyd said.
The Sun Devils thought Doller would be lost for the season, but it turned out to be more as her Sun Devil career ended when she was dismissed from the team for undisclosed reasons.
Piloting the Pumas
Doller and freshman midfielder/defender Jessica DeLeon transferred from ASU to play soccer with the Paradise Valley Community College Pumas, signing their letters of intent in March 2012.They played for coach Kacey Bingham, who won the 2010 NJCAA national championship with PVCC.
Doller and DeLeon led PVCC to a national championship and an undefeated season in 2012, the second championship in three seasons for Bingham.
Doller scored 31 goals in 24 games, ranking fourth in the NJCAA, while DeLeon was an NJCAA All-American and scored 19 goals and had 24 assists.
Bingham moved on to Dixie State, an NCAA Division II school in Utah. Dixie State announced in February that DeLeon followed Bingham to the school, but DeLeon is not currently on the team roster.
DeLeon and Bingham did not respond to interview requests.
Doller completed her sophomore season at PVCC and yearned to get back into Division I soccer – UA gave her that chance.
“We were able to see her play at Paradise Valley, and we sat down with her and met her a couple times to see if she’d be a good fit for us,” Amato said. “It was clear that she would be able to help us moving forward and that’s exactly what she’s done.”
Welcome to UA
The UA soccer team’s past struggles aren’t a mystery. The Wildcats haven’t finished with a .500 record since 2005.When Doller played for ASU in 2011, the Wildcats earned one victory all season.
UA's previous struggles didn’t matter to Doller, who said her decision to transfer to UA was purely functional as it is the closest major University to her Tempe residence.
“I’m a home bug, so I didn’t want to leave home,” Doller said. “That’s the closest thing to home at this level.”
Her 2013 season started in extraordinary fashion, just like it did in 2011, with another two-goal showing.
When UA came to Tempe as part of the Sun Devil Classic in September, Doller scored a goal in the 85th minute, forcing a tie with Kansas.
Through the season, Doller has settled into a starring role with UA and is the second-leading scorer with seven goals.
“She’s been someone who has come in and worked really hard,” Amato said. “She’s been a good personality to add to our group, and obviously she’s a good player who has scored some big goals for us this year.”
Behind Doller and Amato, the Wildcats (8-7-4, 3-6-1 Pac-12) have made significant improvements and steps forward in the 2013 season.
ASU: Life after Doller
Luckily for ASU, it scored big on a forward recruit who entered its program this season. Sophomore forward Cali Farquharson now plays the center-attacking forward spot that Doller once commanded.Farquharson has scored 20 goals for the Sun Devils in her almost-two seasons played. If she continues at that pace, she’ll be the second leading all time goal-scorer for the Sun Devils.
Doller said she isn’t close to anyone in the ASU program anymore. Of the five freshmen entering ASU’s program with her in 2011, only redshirt sophomore Chandler Morris remains on the team.
With the UA vs. ASU game Thursday, many might be wondering what is going through Doller's head.
“She’s someone who is able to separate the emotion of having played there and played here," Amato said. "She’s been pretty focused in on what she needs to do as a player ... She seems pretty focused and I think she’s just concerned about playing well and helping the team be successful.”
Boyd said it won’t be weird seeing Doller in a UA uniform on Thursday.
“She was here for our tournament. We were at their place for their tournament,” Boyd said. “We’ve seen her numerous times. We stayed at the same hotel at one point.”
He said he wishes Doller the best and that the team has moved on without her.
“We appreciate the time that she was here and what she did for us,” Boyd said. “We were all really disappointed for her when she got injured. I want that to be in the past, I want her to move on, and we certainly have moved on.”
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @jjanssen11
