Following the sweep of the Washington schools in last weekend's outing, the Sun Devils enter the week in seventh place in the conference standings. ASU found a lot of success with a new-look formation, throwing a three-back look at both the Huskies and Cougars in the winning efforts.
"I thought we played well for parts of Thursday's game with a different look on the back three," head coach Graham Winkworth said. "We actually kept that for Sunday's game, but the way Oregon plays, with their wide players being very very wide, we're comfortable with the back four and we're comfortable with the back three. We're likely to revert back to what we've been used to most of the season for this game. It's good to have such versatile soccer players with a strong IQ so they can do things like that very quickly."
A win on Thursday over the Ducks in Eugene would set up an ideal situation, not only in terms of wins and losses, but also as it relates historically for the program, and hopefully a NCAA berth. Picking up a ninth regular season win would match the Sun Devil's win total from the 2015 season, and would equal the total number of wins from the 2009 and '10 campaigns that ultimately ended with the Sun Devils competing in NCAA Postseason play.
"We know we have got a big game on Thursday," Winkworth said. "That's what we're focused on right now, our next opponent. Oregon is very good. They are two different teams home and away. They're very very strong on their home pitch, so we've got to be prepared for that. We are fortunate that we have some wonderful facilities here that enable us to train on a turf field and so we'll be well prepared. We have got be ready, and there's no excuses because we will be prepared."
The Ducks will take the field Thursday afternoon looking to further their own case into making it into the NCAA's field of 64. Holding a 7-8-1 record on the season, the Ducks will be eager to stop their current seven-game slide.
Last weekend, the Ducks dropped a 1-2 decision to ninth-ranked UCLA, before being trounced, 5-0, by No. 5 USC. Thursday's contest will mark the first of three-home matches for Oregon to end the season, a welcome site for a team who has battled to a 6-2 home record so far in 2018. Senior forward Marissa Everett leads the Oregon roster with 13 points on the year. She has scored a team-leading six goals while adding an assist.
On Sunday, the Devils will be greeted by a dangerous Oregon State team. Looking for their second conference victory of the season, OSU enters the week looking to snap their four-game losing streak that began on Oct. 7. The Beavers were shutout in both of their games last weekend, dropping a game 5-0 to Stanford, before falling to UCLA, 6-0, on Sunday. Statistically, the Beavers look to be one of the nation's most physical teams, being called for an average of over 12 fouls per game, a mark that ranks No. 13 in the country. While the season record of 2-14-0 doesn't jump off the page, the Beavers have tested themselves on the year, facing seven top-25 teams and one team that is receiving votes so far this season. The list of challenging teams faced include No. 18 Kansas (Aug. 24), No. 25 Texas Tech (Sept. 9), No. 23 Colorado (Sept. 21), No. 9 Washington State (Sept. 30), No. 1 Stanford (Oct. 7), No. 2 USC (Oct. 18), No. 9 UCLA (Oct. 21) and RV Nebraska (Aug. 26).
With the regular season winding down for many teams across the nation this week, ASU's schedule has proved to be anything but simple. Entering this weekend's contests, the Sun Devils have played the 13th- toughest schedule based on opponents win-percentage. In a look at conference standings around the country entering this weekend's games, the Sun Devils have had close matches against Baylor, a team who could wrap up a Big 12 Regular Season Championship with a win over Oklahoma, won a game against South Dakota State (who is currently in first place in the Summit League Standings) and won a match against Weber State who currently sits atop the Big Sky. Most of the struggles for ASU this season have come with a depleted roster due to international duty, including losses to New Hampshire while Alexia Delgado and Eva Van Deursen were away, a loss to Baylor with Jemma Purfield away with the English Team and a loss to Utah while Nicole Douglas was with the English U18 National Team.
"Well I think Baylor is No. 3 or No. 4 in the RPI nationally, so they got a chance at the No. 1 seed and that was in our non-conference schedule," Winkworth said when asked about his team's resume entering the penultimate week of the 2018 season. "South Dakota State is winning their conference, Weber State is winning their conference. So, our non-conference opponents might not be the big names, but they're strong opponents based on how they do in their own leagues. Coming from a mid-major myself, I know you can play some very strong programs that don't necessarily have the prestigious name, but can prepare you well for Pac-12 play. The fact that we've managed to get ourselves to .500 from where we were last year in conference play, and have already played two of the top three teams in the league, I think our non-conference schedule prepared us extremely well."
Following this weekend's trip, the Sun Devils will return home to close out the 2018 regular season against Arizona and Stanford on Nov. 2 and 4. Fans can follow all of the action from the remainder of the season by following @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter and Instagram.