TEMPE – On a night that started with pre-game festivities by the Sun Devil Soccer program to honor 10 senior soccer student-athletes, those same seniors were cheered on by their teammates from the bench area as the seconds ticked away in Arizona State’s 4-1 victory over UTEP on Friday night.
Once the whistle was blown to begin the Sun Devils’ final non-conference match of the 2025 season, it took senior forward Cameron Valladares just 12 minutes into the first half to put a cherry on her senior night and push Arizona State ahead 1-0. The one-goal advantage for the Sun Devils stood for the remainder of the first half and into halftime.
While both teams were in their respective locker rooms for the 15-minute intermission, Sun Devil Athletics honored alumni throughout the soccer program’s 30 seasons, including Cali Farquharson, who will be a 2025 Sun Devil Hall of Fame inductee.
UTEP (3-5-1) tried to spoil the night’s festivities when the Miners leveled the score at 1-1 in the 54th minute of the match.
But Tatum Thomason wasn’t going to have any of it as the senior midfielder netted her fifth goal on the season, third in three consecutive matches and fifth over the last six matches to put the Sun Devils back ahead.
The will to win trickled down throughout the team, too, as junior Lucy Fazackerley made it 3-1, Arizona State, with a header off a Peyton Marcisz corner kick in the 74th minute, before freshman Addison Baltodano capped the night with a goal that was assisted by Valladares and Thomason with less than five minutes to play in regulation.
FROM HEAD COACH GRAHAM WINKWORTH
“First, thank you to everyone who attended tonight’s match. Thank you to all the alumni who showed up, hopefully they had a wonderful time. This is now the 30th season of Arizona State soccer and I’ve been fortunate enough to be around for nine. I’ve met some wonderful people, and it was nice seeing those I was able to coach in the past, but also good to meet the ones who were here before me. And thank you to all the family and friends of the seniors as well as all the students who came out. What a wonderful crowd. I hope everyone felt special tonight, because that was the ultimate goal.”
FROM SENIOR FORWARD CAMERON VALLADARES
“We loved having so many friends, family and alumni cheering us on tonight. We did a lot of work with community service last year and getting around the youth teams in the area and other athletes around campus. We’ve had a lot of support from the volleyball and hockey teams. The crowd was great, and we just want to keep coming out and playing well for them.”
MATCH NOTES
- With Cameron Valladares’ goal at the 12-minute mark, Arizona State has now scored at least one first-half goal in all eight matches to begin the 2025 season.
- With her second-half goal to push Arizona State back ahead, 2-1, Tatum Thomason has now scored a goal and been credited with an assist during the same match for the second time this season. She also achieved the feat during ASU’s 3-0 victory at UNLV on Thursday, Aug. 28.
- Lucy Fazackerley’s header off a Peyton Marcisz corner kick at the 74-minute mark was Fazackerley’s first goal since arriving to Tempe prior to the 2025 season. She had scored four goals in 39 career matches during a two-season span at East Carolina before transferring to Arizona State.
- Tatum Thomason is the first Arizona State women’s soccer student-athlete to score at least one goal in three consecutive matches since Eva van Deursen did so in three straight matches from Sept. 18 to Sept. 29 in 2022.
- With Lucy Fazackerley’s goal during the 74th minute, Arizona State has now scored three-or-more goals in three of five all-time matches against UTEP. The Sun Devils scored three on Feb. 4, 2021 after netting five in El Paso, Texas on Sept. 19, 1997.
UP NEXT
- Arizona State (7-0-1) will return to the pitch at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium on Thursday, Sept. 18, when the Sun Devils take on the BYU Cougars (5-1-1) at 7 p.m. MST on ESPN+. The matchup between the Sun Devils and Cougars will be ASU’s conference-opening match. BYU comes to Tempe following a 2-0 victory over Utah Valley on Friday, Sept. 12.
FOLLOW US
- For the latest information on the team, follow @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TheSunDevils on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.