TEMPE – For extended periods through Friday night’s 90-minute Big 12 Conference-opening match, Sun Devil Soccer played as if it should’ve been picked among the top of the league’s preseason poll rather than the ninth spot it was actually selected.
Arizona State broke through Utah’s defense to register 15 shot attempts – seven on goal – along with earning five corner kicks en route to breaking the Utes’ hearts with a 3-1 victory. The win moved 10th-year Sun Devil Soccer head coach Graham Winkworth to 7-1-2 all time in conference-opening matches at ASU. This comes a year after upsetting then-No. 10 BYU, 2-1, to begin league play in 2025.
After failing to score a goal in just 189 minutes of match time in six league matches while recovering from an injury in 2025, Kierra Blundell returned to the form that earned the Langley, British Columbia, Canada native the Big 12’s Freshman of the Year award the season prior in 2024.
It took Blundell less than 12 minutes to find the back of the net – for the first time – against Utah as she was on the receiving end of a pitch-width cross off the foot of Mya Angus. Blundell got a head on the cross and buried the shot in the upper-left corner of goal for her first goal against a conference foe since Oct. 30, 2024 against Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament. The score was the first for Blundell against a league opponent during the regular season since Sept. 26, 2024 against West Virginia.
And to not be outdone by her teammate Bela Puccinelli’s eventual match-winner off a corner kick by Miki Hayashi, Blundell went on to turn in her first brace – the first for the Canadian since Sept. 19, 2024, when she scored both goals of ASU’s eventual 2-0 win at Houston – 20 minutes after Puccinelli’s header by, again, finding the upper-left corner of the frame on a shot from distance.
Blundell, who turned in her third career multi-goal performance on Friday evening, became the first Sun Devil to record a brace against Utah since Oct. 22, 2017, when Jemma Purfield converted two penalty kick opportunities during regulation of an eventual 2-2 double overtime tie.
From Head Coach Graham Winkworth
“(Kierra Blundell) is not known for her pace, but she's quicker than people think over ten yards. You've got to set the tone defensively. I've made a lot of comparisons in the past between (Blundell) and our former striker, (Nicole Douglas). (Douglas) always gave us not just the goals, but her effort out of possession. She just ran and ran and ran. I love the fact that (Blundell) was rewarded with a goal. I know she scored a blinder in that second half, but the goal she scored earlier in the match, that really set the tone tonight.”
From junior forward Kierra Blundell
“There were a couple of games last year when we did let points slip away to teams at the bottom of the table, and in the end, that was the difference between us making the (conference) tournament and us not making the (NCAA) tournament. So, getting these points tonight were huge. Today, we showed our quality and I’m really proud of these girls.”
From freshman defender Mya Angus
“Oh, (Kierra Blundell) played amazing tonight. We do this thing before every game called, ‘Mystery Mamas,’ and I had her as my person. So, I wrote her a letter saying, ‘You're going to score a banger tonight,” and she did. So, I'm glad she was able to do that.”
Match Notes
- When combing Friday night’s victory with last season’s win, Arizona State has now won back-to-back matches against Utah for the first time since 2013 and 2014.
- Additionally, the Sun Devil win was the first over the Utes in Tempe since Oct. 31, 2021.
- Friday evening marked the first time Arizona State has scored three goals in a conference match since Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, when the Sun Devils beat Cincinnati, 3-1, in Tempe for the program’s second Big 12 victory since joining the league.
- Arizona State has now won two of its three conference-opening matches since joining the Big 12 prior to the 2024 season.
- With her two-goal performance against Utah, Kierra Blundell joins Emmie Ennis (vs. Grambling, 9/11/26), Peyton Marcisz (vs. Grambling, 9/11/26) and Bela Puccinelli (vs. Buffalo, 8/23/26) as Sun Devils with braces on the season.
- It’s the most braces in a single season by an Arizona State squad since 2024, when there were six two-goal outings.
- Of those six, five were accomplished by a different student-athlete.
- It’s the most braces in a single season by an Arizona State squad since 2024, when there were six two-goal outings.
Up Next
Arizona State (6-1-2, 1-0-0) will now look for its first 2-0-0 start to conference play since the 2022 season when the Sun Devils take the pitch at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kan., where ASU will take on Kansas (6-2-1, 0-0-1) at 4 p.m. MST on Thursday, Sept. 24.
Follow Us
For the latest information on the team, follow @SunDevilSoccer on X, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TheSunDevils on X, Instagram and Facebook.