Tempe, Ariz. – With their first week of practice in the rearview mirror, third-year head coach Graham Winkworth and the Arizona State soccer team are more than ready to embrace the challenges that lay ahead of them in the 2019 season.
The Sun Devils will hit the field following a 2018 campaign that saw the squad tally double-digit wins for the first time since winning 12 matches in 2014. The Sun Devils finished tied for seventh in the league with five wins in conference play, the most wins for an ASU team since 2015, including a win over then-No. 22 Washington State on Oct. 18.
The ASU offense found a lot of success in its two promising freshmen (now sophomores) forwards Nicole Douglas and Marleen Schimmer, who both landed a spot on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. Douglas led the Devils with nine goals and three game-winning goals, seventh-most in the Conference. Schimmer contributed five goals, four of which came in the Sun Devils' five conference victories.
"I am seeing exactly what they are seeing," Winkworth said of his first week of training. "I asked them this morning if they think this team is stronger than they have been in recent years and they all said yes. They believe that they are. I think one thing that I am seeing is a higher level of competition in training because of the depth we have. We have had a lot of good players come through the program in recent years, but this year we are a little deeper, and because of that the level practice is higher because people are fighting for playing time constantly. It is a lot of fun."
The Sun Devils will face a daunting schedule that boasts 13 teams that finished at or above .500 last season, including nine teams that finished with ten or more wins in 2018. In total, six teams earned a spot in the 2018 NCAA Tournament field, including conference foe Stanford, who reached the semifinals of the event.
With the challenges that lay ahead, head coach Graham Winkworth will look to his veteran squad to help navigate the tough slate.
"From our older players, I am seeing a continuation from what I saw from our senior group last year," Winkworth said of his veteran leadership. "We had a lot of lovely and welcoming players on our senior class last year who set the bar of what it is like to be an Arizona State Sun Devil and our seniors and our older statesmen are now sharing the same type of leadership in that sense as that group did last year. That for me doesn't just show me what type of leadership we have got, but it also shows me the type of culture that we are creating from year to year."
Returning 19 players from his 2018 roster, including the team's top two goal scorers, Winkworth hopes to continue the growth of the program that finished with 16 total points in the Pac-12 standings and just narrowly missed an opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament. Helping lead the charge this year will be senior captain Kylie Miniefield.
"I am really honored by the selection," Miniefield said of being named a captain. "I have been here forever at this point and I have been on the team as a freshman, as a redshirt player to not even touching the field to now going into my fifth year and being one of the oldest players on the squad. I am really lucky that I have been able to spend so much time on the team. When I first tore my ACL my freshman year and redshirted, I thought it was going to be the worst thing of my entire life but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because now I have had five years on this team and in this program to work with so many girls. I think this year is the best will be in my entire five years here, which is so awesome and I am so excited because I want to go out with a bang and I want to make sure this is the best yet. I really believe in all the girls here."
"She exemplifies what it is to be an Arizona State collegiate athlete," Winkworth said of his senior captain. "She is a person anyone would want as a part of their family. She is a fan favorite because she plays with a smile on her face, works extremely hard, and earns the respect of her teammates. On top of that, she is my son's new favorite player so she has a lot going for her."
A fifth-year senior from Chandler, Ariz., Miniefield has seen her fair share of ups and downs as a Sun Devil and hopes that the 2019 season will yield a berth in the 64-team field of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
"It is a little depressing to not make the tournament last season," Miniefield added. "Me and my class, we have never made it to the NCAA tournament and last year was the best we had been in the past four years. We had such high hopes that we were going to make it in and it would have been so sweet for my class to make it in their last year. The feeling when our name didn't get called and it was nothing we can do at that point."
"You feel so defeated. At that moment you think back to every game, like all the mistakes you made. So you only can learn from your past and use that as motivation to do better. In little games, even in practices, we talk about effort. Effort is huge. And yes, maybe you will mess up on your touches, that's normal we are human. It depends on how quickly you can go after the ball, how quickly you can make that track back when we lose the ball. Little things like that are going to prevent us from being in that situation again."
While the experienced Sun Devil roster does boast a lot of talented players, they are very well complimented by the addition of 13 newcomers this season.
"We have got a lot of talented newcomers on all ends of the pitch," Winkworth said of the incoming players. "It is difficult to pinpoint one that stands out. We have a lot of new faces in the back, we got some new goalkeepers. It was nice to welcome Sydney Day back as a returning goalkeeper here, but we do have a lot of hard-working, fighting type players and technically gifted players in the midfield. It is very difficult to call out one individual because at the moment I think that everybody is working hard. I think what will help players earn playing time is for them to maintain that level of consistency as preseason comes to a close and the games start coming."
The Sun Devils will begin the season with a trip to Cal State Fullerton on Thursday, Aug. 22, before returning to the friendly confines of Sun Devil Soccer Stadium for their home-opener on Sunday, Aug 25.
Fans can follow all of the action from the 2019 Season by following @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter and Instagram. Tickets, including season and single-game, are available by visiting TicketMaster.com.