WHEN: Sunday at 7 pm MST
WHERE: Sun Devil Soccer Stadium
TELEVISION: Pac-12 Network/Arizona
LIVE STATS: Click here
PURCHASE TICKETS: Click here
UP NEXT
Sun Devil Soccer closes out the first weekend of play on Sunday (7 pm MST) when it hosts Hawaii at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
Sunday’s contest is the second of two games the Sun Devils are playing in front of their home crowd this weekend.
NOTES FROM LAST GAME
• ASU opened the 2022 campaign with a 1-1 tie vs, 2021 NCAA Tournament participant South Dakota State in a game contested in atypical fashion. Lightning halted play in the 48th minute on Thursday with SDSU up 1-0 after scoring in the 16th minute. The two teams agreed to restart play of the game, which started at 7 pm MST, on Friday at 10 am MST.
• The first goal of the Sun Devil sophomore forward Keri Matthews’ career in the 50th minute tied the game at 1-1. Lucy Johnson and Indiana transfer Gabi Renniewho played for New Zealand in the most recent Summer Olympics, teamed up to set up Matthews’ goal.
• The Sun Devils were denied a dramatic win when it was ruled they were offsides Eva van Deursen found the back of the net in the 90th minute.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Birta Gudlaugsdottir tied her career high with nine saves.
• Freshman D Andrea Kraetzer and freshman M Enasia Colon were ASU’s first-time starters in the lineup.
HEAD COACH GRAHAM WINKWORTH SAID…
“[On Thursday night] we were making mistakes in both penalty areas, missing relatively easy chances and giving the opposition too many easy chances from mistakes. I thought we absolutely controlled the first 15 minutes (while going against a strong wind) but then we lost our heads and didn’t recover until the second half [on Friday morning]. And I thought we were pretty dominant [on Friday].”
“We were more composed [on Friday]. I think we lost our heads [on Thursday night] when we went one-nil down, and I think every time the ball came to somebody, especially in the wind, we just couldn’t control it, we couldn’t focus and we weren’t moving and we just weren’t us . We were just 11 individuals out there. [On Friday], we looked more like a team. Scoring an early goal gave us the early confidence, and honestly thought we ran out of time because the next goal was coming, and I thought it was in the last few seconds.”
SETTING THE STAGE FOR 2022
The Sun Devils are led by the sixth-year head coach Graham Winkworth. ASU is coming off a 2021 campaign in which it won 10 games, the second time it has posted a double-digit win total (2018 and 2021) in the last four seasons and that does not include the 9-6-2 record that was good enough to earn the squad a berth in the 2020 NCAA Tournament. Prior to 2018, ASU posted a double-digit win total twice in the previous 10 seasons.
SERIES NOTES VS. HAWAII
ASU has won two of the three all-time meetings. As a freshman in 2014, former Sun Devil Aly Moon tied the single-game school record with three goals in ASU’s 5-2 win at Hawaii.
CHASING HISTORY
All eyes will be focused on the 2021 NCAA scoring leader Nicole Douglas, who earned Third-Team All-America honors last season and was one of 13 players named to the All-Pac-12 First Team. The first Sun Devil to earn All-America honors since 2002, in 2021 Douglas set the single-season school records for goals (19) and points (45). She led the nation in goals (19), goals per game (0.95) and points per game (2.25).
A fifth-year player, Douglas enters the 2022 season in second place in program history in career goals (46), career points (109) and career game-winning goals (14) and is tied for seventh in career assists (17). Sun Devil Hall of Famer Stacey Tullock (1998-2001) holds the school record in all four categories: goals (50), points (125), game-winning goals (16) and assists (25).
Douglas, who has started all 72 games she has played in her Sun Devil career, accounted for a goal or assist in all but five games last season and had a stretch in which she scored at least one goal in seven straight games.
On Aug. 18, it was announced that Douglas was one of 60 players on the 2022 Hermann Trophy Watch List. Presented annually by the Missouri Athletic Club, the Hermann Trophy is the nation’s highest individual honor recognizing the National Player of the Year as determined by the voting of Division I coaches who are members of the United Soccer Coaches.
CHASING HISTORY PART II
Also within reach of breaking a program career record is the fifth-year midfielder Eva van Deursen (20 career assists/third place), who entered the 2022 campaign needing six assists to become ASU’s all-time leader: Manya Makoski (second place/22 assists/2002-05), ASU Hall of Famer Stacey Tullock (first place/25 assists/1998-2001).
Last season, van Deursen, who also scored three goals, set the school’s single-season assists record with 10. At the season’s end, van Deursen led the Pac-12 and was No. 19th in the nation in assists per game (0.56). She tied her single-game career high in assists (two) twice in ASU’s wins at UAB (Aug. 29) and vs. Utah (Oct. 31).
ABOUT THE SCHEDULE
Included on ASU’s 2022 schedule are six contests against teams that qualified for last season’s NCAA Tournament: South Dakota State (T, 1-1), Pepperdine, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington State.
HOW’S THIS FOR EXPERIENCE?
ASU returns a quartet of fifth-year players in the form of forwards Nicole Douglas (72 starts/72 games) and Olivia Nguyen (37 starts/62 games, including 36 starts in 38 games since the start of her junior season) and midfielders Alexia Delgado (58 starts/65 games) and Eva van Deursen (67 starts/70 games). The four players have combined for 234 games in starting experience out of 269 games.
The Sun Devils also return two other players with more than 50 games of starting experience: defender Lieske Carleer (52 starts/53 career games) and defender/midfielder Callie Darst (57 starts in 58 career games). Darst has averaged 88.7 minutes in those 58 games.
ALL RISE FOR THE CAPTAIN
The heart and soul of the team, Delgado will once again assume captain duties this season. Delgado was a workhorse on the pitch logging 60 minutes in all but one of the matches she appeared in, and 104 minutes in a game against Washington St.
“Alexia is the greatest leader I have ever met,” said the head coach Graham Winkworth. “Her professionalism is unbelievable. She is an extremely intelligent player to the point that she reads the game just that little bit quicker than just about any opponent I have seen. She is a coach on the pitch and our incredible captain.”
LIESKE LEADS THE DEFENSE
Entering her senior year, Lieske Carleer will be the backbone of the Sun Devils’ defense. In 2021 she started 17 games and played every minute in eight of those games. She earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors for her performances at Mississippi St. where she played all but seven minutes of the game and at UAB. In those two games, Carleer’s work on the defensive side helped the Sun Devils blank the Bulldogs and allowed only one goal against UAB.
TRANSFERS
The Sun Devils welcome two transfers to the program, Gabi Rennie and Hannah Leitner. Rennie, who had an assist in her Sun Devil debut vs. South Dakota State, joined the Sun Devils after starting her career at Indiana University. She also spent time with the New Zealand national team and scored a goal for them in the Tokyo Olympics. In her three seasons playing for New Mexico State, Leitner became the program’s all-time career assists leader (12) and tied for eighth in career goals (nine).
MORE NEW FACES
The Sun Devils will also be welcoming nine freshmen to Tempe: goalkeepers Pauline Nelles and Kayla Letcher; defenders Andrea Kraetzer, Ava Wright, Meighan Farrell and Mya Wheeler; midfielder Brianna Nunley and a pair of newcomers who can play at multiple positions: Enasia Colon (midfield/forward) and Mia Lanni (midfield/forward).
Colon and Kraetzer were both in the starting lineup in ASU’s season opener vs. South Dakota State.
LOOKING BACK AT 2021
• After its 8-1 record in non-conference play, ASU earned a No. 15 ranking in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, its highest in program history.
• Due to injuries, ASU had 22 different players in the starting lineup. Nicole Douglas and Callie Darst were the only two players who started all 20 games.
• After winning all five of its one-goal games in non-conference play, ASU was not as fortunate in Pac-12 games as it went 1-6 in such games and also had a pair of ties.
• After losing two-year starter Giulia Cascapera in fall camp, the goalkeeper duties were split between freshmen Birta Gudlaugsdottir and Julia Ortega.
• Douglas (19 goals) and fellow striker Olivia Nguyen (seven goals) combined for 26 of ASU’s 42 goals. Although Douglas and Nguyen accounted for the majority of the goals, ASU had 10 different players find the back of the net in 2021.
SPOTLIGHT ON THE SUN DEVILS
Sun Devil Soccer is appearing on Pac-12 Networks seven times in 2022: vs. South Dakota State (opening night on Aug. 18), vs. Hawaii (Aug. 21), vs. Pepperdine (Sept. 8), at USC (Oct. 9), vs. Utah (Oct. 14), at Washington State (Oct. 20), vs. Arizona (Nov. 4).
SMART SUN DEVILS
Sun Devil Soccer was well represented on the 2021 Pac-12 Fall Academic Honor Roll as 19 Sun Devils earned recognition from the conference.
In addition, Lieske Carleer and Eva van Deursen were both named to the 2021 CoSIDA Academic All-District® Women’s Soccer Team.