CINCINNATI, Ohio – Following a stretch of seven-straight home matches, the Sun Devil Soccer program (8-1-2, 1-1-1) will return to the road for its next matchup, scheduled to play against the Bearcats (2-4-5, 0-2-1) at Gettler Stadium in Cincinnati at 4 p.m. MST / 7 p.m. EST on Thursday, October 2.
Television
Anthony Mazzini (play-by-play) and Alexa Burkart (analyst) will serve as the broadcast talent for Thursday afternoon’s ESPN+ broadcast, which will be available to stream on the ESPN app and countless others.
Series history
Arizona State and Cincinnati have only met once before Thursday’s matchup - Sunday, September 29, 2024, in Tempe, when the Sun Devils earned a 3-1 conference win.
In the lone previous meeting between the two programs, Arizona State hurried out to a 3-0 lead before goals from Enasia Colon, Cameron Valladares and Grace Gillard. Colon was credited with assists on Valladares and Gillard’s goals, while Meighan Farrell registered assists on Colon and Valladares’ goals, too.
The Bearcats scored their lone goal of the contest at the 85:22 mark of the game to spoil Pauline Nelles’ would-be clean sheet. ASU’s defense held Cincinnati to just five shots throughout the night, including only one during the first 45 minutes of play.
Thursday will mark the first-ever match for Arizona State against Cincinnati in Cincinnati.
Kicking off
Thursday night’s action will mark the Sun Devils’ first-ever soccer match played in Ohio. When the clock starts, Ohio will become the 35th different state in which Arizona State has played a women’s soccer match.
Arizona State will be looking for its first win in a soccer match played on October 2 since the 2011 season, when the Sun Devils knocked off Colorado, 1-0, in Boulder, Colorado.
With her next assist, Cameron Valladares (8) will join Eva van Deursen (10; 2021) and Manya Makoski (9; 2002) as the only Sun Devil women’s soccer student-athletes to be credited with nine or more assists during a single season. van Deursen holds the program’s single-season assist record (10) set throughout the 2021 campaign.
With her next clean sheet, Pauline Nelles (23; 2022-P) will tie Chandler Morris (24; 2011-15) for the most career clean sheets in the program’s history.
A win over the Bearcats on Thursday would mark Arizona State’s 75th all-time victory in matches played during October. The current 74 wins in October make the month the second-winningest for ASU behind September, which has 118.
Thursday’s match will mark Arizona State’s first away from Tempe since Thursday, August 28, when the Sun Devils beat UNLV, 3-0, in Las Vegas. This season, ASU is 2-0-1 on the road, with the lone blemish being a 1-1, 90-minute tie against Texas in Austin on Thursday, August 21.
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