TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona State soccer team will continue their four-game home-stand with an afternoon meeting against Utah Friday at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium. The team's Pac-12 home opener will kick off at 2:00 p.m. PT with Pac-12 Network set to broadcast the game.
In their last outing, Arizona State battled to a 1-1 draw against CSUN, a tough result for the team after dominating the match in nearly every statistical category.
"I watched it again and we should have been 3-0 up after 25 minutes," Winkworth said of last week's match. "I think we controlled the game from start to finish, so I'm very happy with the way we're playing right now, we just have to get a little more clinical in both goal areas, make sure we're working the goalkeepers hard in training and making sure that we do some finishing in practice as well to put the icing on the cake really. But everything that's happening in between those two areas has been very pleasing up to this point."
The draw brought to a close a successful non-conference campaign for the Sun Devils who will begin Pac-12 play with an impressive 6-2-1 record Friday afternoon. The Sun Devils have shown a lot of progress through the first half of the season, outscoring opponents 26-11 through their first nine games of the season. All of those goals have led to 2.89 goals per game average for the Sun Devils, a mark that ranks 10th nationally.
"We're about where I expected to be," head coach Graham Winkworth said. "We're playing some decent football now. We've improved our defending and we're creating goal-scoring opportunities. Now we just need to be a little bit more clinical in both penalty areas, because if we can be a little bit more clinical in both areas then I think we can have a lot of success because we're creating chances and limiting our opponent's."
The Sun Devils will have a tough task on their hands in Friday's game, hosting a Utah team that enters Pac-12 play with a 5-3-0 record on the year. The Utes do find themselves riding high having won five of their past six matches coming into Friday's meeting.
The Utes have been anchored by their defense to start the season, allowing just seven goals in nine contests with six games ending in shutouts. Senior goalkeeper Carly Nelson has been a presence in her nine starts between the pipes, accumulating 46 saves while allowing just seven goals. The offense attack has seen seven different players score goals, including senior midfielder Molly Daugirda, who leads the team with two.
"They are a really good team, really well organized," Winkworth said of Friday's matchup against the Utes. "They're very, very strong defensively. They don't concede many goals, so we're going to have to be patient, but we need to be aggressive in the way we play still because not many goals are scored against them. But we need to do it in a way where we are also aware and conservative enough to where we're not giving them easy opportunities when we lose possession of the ball, so we've got to get the balance right. But they are very well-coached, well organized, and I would say a more defensively-minded team."
Giving the Sun Devils a boost on Friday will be a rowdy home crowd that has played an important part in the early success of the team to this point.
"It makes a big difference," Winkworth said of the team's home support to this point in the season. "The support this year has been fantastic. I can't thank everyone enough for their efforts because it is like playing with a 12th player, so we hope they continue to come to cheer the ladies on."
Following Friday's game, ASU will continue its four-match home stand with a pair of conference matches against USC and UCLA, both who have secured top-10 rankings entering the first week of conference play. Fans can follow all of the action from the 2019 season by following @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter and Instagram.