TEMPE – Currently sitting near the top of the table of the Big 12 Conference standings, the unbeaten Sun Devil Soccer squad (8-0-2, 1-0-1) will wrap up a seven-match homestand on Sunday, Sept. 28, when ASU welcomes UCF (6-2-1, 0-1-1) to Sun Devil Soccer Stadium for a conference matchup beginning at 1 p.m. MST.
Since returning to Tempe following a three-match road tile in late August, Arizona State has earned five wins in six home matches with the lone oddity being a 0-0 tie against Oklahoma State last time out. Over the six-match stretch, the Sun Devils have outscored their opponents 11-3 and recorded three clean sheets.
TELEVISION:
- Ryan Sykora (play by play) and Adrian Pelayo (analyst) will serve as the talent for the ESPN+ broadcast that is available to stream on multiple platforms, including the ESPN app.
SERIES HISTORY:
- Sunday afternoon will make the first time UCF has played Arizona State in Tempe since Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017, when the then-No. 24 ranked Knights won, 2-1, in the Sun Devil Classic.
- Arizona State will look for its first win over UCF since Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006, when the Sun Devils bested the Knights, 2-0, in Las Vegas as a part of the UNLV Invite.
- UCF will bring a 3-1-1 all-time record against Arizona State into Sunday’s meeting between the two programs.
KICKING OFF:
- If she plays 30:08 of Sunday’s match, Arizona State senior Pauline Nelles will become just the fourth Sun Devil goalkeeper to play 6,000-or-more career minutes between the pipes. Nelles will join Morris (7,124:06; 2011-15), Erin Reinke (6,405:36; 1997-00) and Kim Bingham (2003-06). She’ll become the first ASU student-athlete to reach the mark since Chandler Morris did so as a senior in 2015.
- If Pauline Nelles is credited with a clean sheet against UCF on Sunday afternoon, the fourth-year senior Sun Devil will tie Chandler Morris (2011-15) for the most career clean sheets in program history. Nelles and Morris are currently the only Sun Devil women’s soccer student-athletes in program history with 20-or-more career clean sheets.
- Not only will a clean sheet by Pauline Nelles on Sunday tie the program’s career mark, but she will also join Chandler Morris as the only Sun Devil goalkeepers to record at least six career clean sheets in a single season in three seasons between the pipes.
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.