TEMPE – Looking for its best start to a season since the 2000 campaign, Sun Devil Women’s Soccer will welcome UTEP to Sun Devil Soccer Stadium for a 7 p.m. MST kickoff on Friday, Sept. 12.
The meeting will mark the Miners’ first trip to Tempe to play Arizona State since Feb. 4, 2021, when the two programs opened a spring schedule slate following the cancellation of the fall portion of the 2020 athletic year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Television
- Friday night’s match will be available to watch on ESPN+ with Ryan Sykora (play by play) and Adrian Pelayo (analyst) on the call.
Series history
- Friday’s match between Arizona State and UTEP will mark the fifth all-time meeting between the two women’s soccer programs and first since the 2023 season.
- The Sun Devils will enter Friday evening having won the last three consecutive matches over the Miners and have not dropped a contest since Oct. 4, 1996, when UTEP won, 2-1, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- Ava Wright, Pauline Nelles, Ella Opkvitne and Meighan Farrell are the only active Sun Devil women’s soccer student-athletes to have played in the last meeting between Arizona State and UTEP on a soccer pitch. Nelles played all 90 minutes between the pipes and made only two saves en route to earning a clean sheet. Wright played 61:17 on the defensive back line, while Opkvitne was on the pitch for 69:31 and was credited with two shots on goal. Farrell came off the bench to play 42:51.
- The winning team throughout the four-match series history has scored two-or-more goals.
- Oct. 4, 1996 – UTEP 2, Arizona State 1
- Sept. 19, 1997 – Arizona State 5, UTEP 1
- Feb. 4, 2021 – Arizona State 3, UTEP 1
- Aug. 27, 2023 – Arizona State 2, UTEP 0
- Arizona State will be entering Friday’s match having not allowed a goal to UTEP over the last 91:06 of match time, which is the longest consecutive shutout streak by either team throughout the series history. The Miners last scored a goal against the Sun Devils at the 88:54 mark of a 3-1 ASU victory in Tempe on Feb. 4, 2021.
Kicking off
- A win for Arizona State on Friday night would mark the sixth consecutive win for the Sun Devils, which would tie for the third-longest winning streak in program history and longest since winning six in a row from Aug. 31, 2014 to Sept. 19, 2014.
- 12 – Oct. 31, 1999 to Sept. 24, 2000
- 7 – Sept. 13, 2002 to Oct. 11, 2002
- 6 – Aug. 31, 2014 to Sept. 19, 2014
- 6 – Sept. 10, 1999 to Oct. 1, 1999
- With either a win or tie against UTEP on Friday evening, Arizona State will run its current unbeaten streak to eight consecutive matches, which would tie for the third-longest unbeaten streak in program and longest since not dropping a match over an eight-match span from Feb. 4, 2021 to March 14, 2021.
- 12 (12-0-0) – Oct. 13, 1999 to Sept. 24, 2000
- 9 (7-0-2) – Aug. 31, 2014 to Oct. 5, 2014
- 8 (6-0-2) – Feb. 4, 2021 to Mar. 14, 2021
- 8 (6-0-2) – Nov. 13, 2009 to Sept. 17, 2010
- If Arizona State senior Tatum Thomason converts a penalty kick opportunity against UTEP on Friday, Thomason will join Nicole Douglas as the only student-athletes in program history to convert a penalty kick attempt in three consecutive matches. Douglas accomplished the feat against Texas Tech (9/12), at Colorado College (9/17) and at Washington (9/24) during the early portion of the 2021 season.
- A win on Friday would move Arizona State’s overall record to 7-0-1, which would be the best start to a season by the Sun Devils since opening the 2000 campaign 9-0-0.
- Friday evening’s game between Arizona State and UTEP will mark the fourth consecutive home match for the Sun Devils, marking the longest such streak for ASU since having six straight soccer matches in Tempe from Aug. 31 to Sept. 22 during the 2023 campaign.
- Prior to kickoff of Friday’s match, the Arizona State women’s soccer program will honor 10 senior student-athletes: Grace Gillard, Peyton Marcisz, Tatum Thomason, Ava Wright, Brianna Nunley, Pauline Nelles, Meighan Farrell, Izzy Monck, Cameron Valladares, Daan Louwerse.
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