Sophomore forward Aly Moon dribbles the ball around her opponent in a home scrimmage against NAU on Aug. 15, 2014. (Photo by Emily Johnson)ASU soccer advanced to the second round of the NCAA playoffs after a decisive 4-2 win against NAU, where freshman forward Aly Moon added her ninth and tenth goals of the season in just in the first six minutes of action last Saturday.
The Sun Devils' top goal scorer, junior forward Cali Farquharson, sat out the majority of the game after sustaining an injury early in the 15th minute.
“We hope to heal her and get her ready for Friday night,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “She has been such a critical piece to our team.”
ASU might have to play without Farquharson and rely on other players to score against No. 3 Kentucky on Friday. However, the team has proven it can find the back of the net, even without Farquharson and Moon at full strength.
The Wildcats are coming off a thrilling 4-2 win against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville that went to penalty kicks after going scoreless in regulation and double overtime.
Sophomore forward Jade Klump is Kentucky’s top scorer, with eight goals on the season, who is closely followed by senior defender Arin Gilliland and junior midfielder Courtney Raetzman, who have seven and six goals respectively.
Kentucky is ranked 45th in scoring offense, scoring a total of 43 goals, averaging 1.95 goals a game. ASU is close behind, ranked 51st with 40 goals, averaging 1.9 goals a game. The Wildcats are ranked 46th in total assists, whereas ASU is ranked 85th.
Although going up against a highly-seeded team like Kentucky carries with it an element of pressure, Boyd isn't worried about his team, citing the competitiveness of the Pac–12, and what ASU endured just to make it to the playoffs.
“The great thing about playing in this conference is that we’ve had to battle to get through the conference,” Boyd said. “Our conference is so good. So it doesn’t matter who we face, we’ve faced their like or better, and we know that. We feel like we are battle-ready, and we are going to go in and give it our best game.”
ASU will play Kentucky in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday.
Reach the reporter at mtsteine@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @MarcTSteiner
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