Arizona State will be looking to continue to build momentum following the team's 0-0 draw at No. 15 Washington State in their last outing. The scoreless draw marked the second straight scoreless outing for the Sun Devils, who were shutout for the first time in 13-straight games in their 0-1 loss to Washington last Thursday.
"I think Washington were deserved winners. They were very, very good. I know they only scored one goal, but it could've been more, to be fair," head coach Graham Winkworth said of his team's performance last weekend. "They were very, very good. We did some things extremely well defensively and I thought Giulia Cascapera had an excellent game in the goal, but I want to give credit to Washington. They were fantastic and we had our chances, but they deserved the win. On Sunday, we were much better. Obviously, we were missing Taylor Culver in the backline, so we made some adjustments there and I thought we played really well. We made blocks, and we forced Washington State to take low percentage shots. I thought the ladies did extremely well. Washington State is an incredibly physical team and there were a lot of challenges that were pretty late, and I thought we did an extremely good job at maintaining our discipline. I was really proud of the ladies for that. That was a challenging match and the ladies did a great job maintaining their discipline in those circumstances and were unfortunate not to come away with the victory."
Despite not cracking the scoreboard, the Sun Devils played themselves into a handful of opportunities that gave the upset-minded ASU side a little bit of momentum heading into the back end of the Pac-12 schedule.
"We scored a pretty good goal which, unfortunately, got ruled out for offside," Winkworth said of the late game heroics in Pullman on Sunday. "There was another opportunity that we had a shot from difference that Eva Van Duersen was ruled offside again, which was super tight. The linesman's has the best view, but it looked like it was tight. It was a really incredible effort, but particularly defensively on Sunday."
Despite Stanford holding a commanding lead on the rest of the Pac-12, there has been a lot of shuffling in terms of league standings through the season. Following the third week of Pac-12 play, six teams are separated by three points or less in the standings. Stanford (5-0) leads the way with 15 points, while USC and Washington sit in a tie for second with 12 points each. From there, just about every remaining team is within striking distance of each other, making this an important weekend for every team in the Pac-12 hunt.
"Stanford's Stanford, but outside of that it really is close," Winkworth said of the parity in the Pac-12. "We were a penalty kick away from tying USC, who is No. 4 in the nation. We've tied on the road at Washington State, who were No. 15, and so there are loads of parity in the league. Credit also to Oregon State for jumping from where they were, to where they are now. Fantastic credit to Coach Matt Kagan up there, because he's doing a great job. It makes the league better, it is the best league in the country from top to bottom and it's fun to play in. One win, if we get one at Colorado, puts us halfway up the league standings and suddenly people start looking at the other end of the table rather than the bottom end of the table. We know that there's nothing between teams right now and so we're excited to get on the road and we're looking forward to what will be a very difficult game against Colorado."
Colorado enters the weekend looking to right the ship following a hard-fought 2-1 loss to No. 4 USC in their last outing. After holding the fourth-ranked Ladies of Troy scoreless in the first half of the match, SC found the game's first goal in the opening minutes of the second half. The Buffs countered less than ten minutes later, but a quick strike from USC would push the score final, 2-1. Despite the recent loss, Colorado has been strong all season, outscoring their opponents 25-15, including a 10-5 scoring advantage in the first half of their matches this season. Taylor Kornieck leads the way for the Buffaloes this season, with nine goals and five assists on the year. In goal, Jalen Tompkins has been lights-out, carding 43 saves and turning in six shutout performances to this point in the year.
Following Saturday's game, ASU will return home for their final two regular-season games at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium. Arizona State will wrap up their home schedule with a pair of games, beginning Thursday with a 6:00 p.m. meeting with Oregon State, before wrapping up the home-stand with a 1:00 p.m. Sunday meeting with Oregon. Fans can follow all of the action from the 2019 season by following @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter and Instagram.