By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE – Kevin Boyd should plan to play the Lottery soon. The Sun Devils women's soccer coach is overdue for a run of fantastic fortune.
For the second straight season, Boyd's plans have been derailed by injuries.
"It's not just injuries, it's the critical ones," Boyd said. "You're always going to have some but it's been really key players."
Entering Friday's season finale against Arizona in Tempe, the Sun Devils (6-10-2) have been without three of their four leading scorers, Jazmarie Mader, Aly Moon and Lucy Lara for a combined 15½ games due to injury. The last time the three were on the field at the same time was the Pac-12 opener against UCLA in Los Angeles.
A similar scenario played out last season when the Sun Devils lost senior forward Cali Farquharson, the 12th overall pick in the 2016 NWSL College Draft by the Washington Spirit, for 4½ games. That loss was a key factor in the Devils missing the NCAA Tournament.
"She was the most critical player you could have picked on our squad," Boyd said. "This year, it's our leading scorer who had eight goals in the first [12] games. She was almost on a goal a game pace and then Aly Moon who is arguably our best soccer player.
"Lucy has been limited for over a month now with her injury and she sat out a couple games for us. The difference between having her on the field and not having her on the field is massive. When she's on the field, she really is controlling the middle of the field and it doesn't fall on someone else's shoulders who is really not ready to do it."
Only six Sun Devils have played in each of the season's first 18 games, and defenders Mckenzie Grossman and Madison Stark collided in a game against Colorado on Oct. 2. Grossman needed 46 stitches to close a cut and Stark suffered a concussion.
Despite those challenges, the Sun Devils have turned in some strong performances. They were scoreless at the half against No. 3 Stanford on Sunday before falling 2-1, they were scoreless with No. 5 USC through almost 58 minutes before falling 2-0, they were scoreless with No. 21 Cal for nearly 75 minutes last week and lost 2-0, and they lost to Washington State, 2-1, in double overtime in Pullman despite leading most of the game.
"The team has done a really good job of staying focused and continuing to compete hard," Boyd said. "We know we don't have a chance at the playoffs and it was possible the team could have gone the other direction on us, but it didn't. That's a credit to the leadership from the captains all the way through the team as a whole wanting to battle with pride and represent our school."
Boyd will lose five players to graduation, but he is high on a recruiting class he believes contains impact players. He has also seen positives from many of his returning players.
"[Junior defender] Madison Stark has been steady as she always is, Devyn Kelsey, as a freshman, is someone that needs to stay in our national pool because she's really good, and [sophomore] Adrianna Orozco, [redshirt freshman] Kylie Miniefield and [freshman] Olivia Hernandez have all been getting minutes," Boyd said.
"I would prefer not having the injuries and not having those players have to shoulder the burden. I'd rather have them be more of the role players so that they can work off of those guys, but I'm really happy with how they've come along and I'm very proud of the way our team keeps fighting."
Seniors Lara, Grossman, Larisa Staub, Annie Warren and Ashley March will play their final games as Sun Devils against the Wildcats on Friday at 3 p.m. in the annual Territorial Cup Series game.
TEMPE – Kevin Boyd should plan to play the Lottery soon. The Sun Devils women's soccer coach is overdue for a run of fantastic fortune.
For the second straight season, Boyd's plans have been derailed by injuries.
"It's not just injuries, it's the critical ones," Boyd said. "You're always going to have some but it's been really key players."
Entering Friday's season finale against Arizona in Tempe, the Sun Devils (6-10-2) have been without three of their four leading scorers, Jazmarie Mader, Aly Moon and Lucy Lara for a combined 15½ games due to injury. The last time the three were on the field at the same time was the Pac-12 opener against UCLA in Los Angeles.
A similar scenario played out last season when the Sun Devils lost senior forward Cali Farquharson, the 12th overall pick in the 2016 NWSL College Draft by the Washington Spirit, for 4½ games. That loss was a key factor in the Devils missing the NCAA Tournament.
"She was the most critical player you could have picked on our squad," Boyd said. "This year, it's our leading scorer who had eight goals in the first [12] games. She was almost on a goal a game pace and then Aly Moon who is arguably our best soccer player.
"Lucy has been limited for over a month now with her injury and she sat out a couple games for us. The difference between having her on the field and not having her on the field is massive. When she's on the field, she really is controlling the middle of the field and it doesn't fall on someone else's shoulders who is really not ready to do it."
Only six Sun Devils have played in each of the season's first 18 games, and defenders Mckenzie Grossman and Madison Stark collided in a game against Colorado on Oct. 2. Grossman needed 46 stitches to close a cut and Stark suffered a concussion.
Despite those challenges, the Sun Devils have turned in some strong performances. They were scoreless at the half against No. 3 Stanford on Sunday before falling 2-1, they were scoreless with No. 5 USC through almost 58 minutes before falling 2-0, they were scoreless with No. 21 Cal for nearly 75 minutes last week and lost 2-0, and they lost to Washington State, 2-1, in double overtime in Pullman despite leading most of the game.
"The team has done a really good job of staying focused and continuing to compete hard," Boyd said. "We know we don't have a chance at the playoffs and it was possible the team could have gone the other direction on us, but it didn't. That's a credit to the leadership from the captains all the way through the team as a whole wanting to battle with pride and represent our school."
Boyd will lose five players to graduation, but he is high on a recruiting class he believes contains impact players. He has also seen positives from many of his returning players.
"[Junior defender] Madison Stark has been steady as she always is, Devyn Kelsey, as a freshman, is someone that needs to stay in our national pool because she's really good, and [sophomore] Adrianna Orozco, [redshirt freshman] Kylie Miniefield and [freshman] Olivia Hernandez have all been getting minutes," Boyd said.
"I would prefer not having the injuries and not having those players have to shoulder the burden. I'd rather have them be more of the role players so that they can work off of those guys, but I'm really happy with how they've come along and I'm very proud of the way our team keeps fighting."
Seniors Lara, Grossman, Larisa Staub, Annie Warren and Ashley March will play their final games as Sun Devils against the Wildcats on Friday at 3 p.m. in the annual Territorial Cup Series game.