Sun Devil Soccer opens NCAA Tournament at Portland on Saturday night

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The Sun Devil football team will attempt to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons. They will travel to Oregon to face No. 8 seed Portland (7:00pm/8:00pm PT). First Round Match Saturday at 7:00 PM PT/8:00 PM PST.

The Sun Devils (9-5-3, 5-5-1 Pac-12) look to once again exhibit the defining qualities of the program in recent years: toughness and resilience.

On October 30, football pundits thought a win over Oregon State would seal ASU’s NCAA spot. Unfortunately, the Sun Devils were eliminated after his 3-1 upset. And just like that, the ASU’s season finale against in-state rival Arizona, a team the ASU hadn’t beaten since 2015, almost became a must-win contest. After lagging with -1, Eva Van Dusen and Lucy Johnson both scored goals to help the ASU to a 3–2 come-from-behind victory over the Wildcats.

The win over Arizona was one of four contests the Sun Devils had to dig deep to find out how to win, and that’s why they’re still playing in the second week of November. ASU started his Pac-12 play with his 2-0 record for the first time since 2007. He won the Pac-12’s opener in Colorado, 3-2. This victory was made possible by a van Dusen goal from his three seconds remaining. A week later, in his stellar Pac-12 power against his Cal, van Dusen scored the winning goal again to give ASU his 2–1 come-from-behind victory over the Bears. Finally, ASU entered the game with his fourth straight win (0-3-1) at Washington State (October 20) and the only goal in 360 minutes of play. In a game that likely served as an eliminator for the losing team as far as postseason ambitions are concerned, the Sun Devils pulled off a convincing 2-0 victory.

Series Notes VS Portland

The only previous matchup between the Sun Devils and the Pilots was in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, a game the Pilots won 3–1 in Portland.

what to look for

• ASU’s ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and second in the past three seasons under a six-year head coach. Graham WinksworthASU reached as far as second found five times in 2020 (played in Spring 2021). ASU gave Duke everything it wanted as he nearly made his first Sweet 16 before finally losing to the Blue Devils in his 2OT.
• The Sun Devils finished tied for fifth in the Pac-12. How tough was it to navigate the Women’s Soccer Conference of Champions this season? With three games left in the season, the Pac-12 finished 11 of the 12 teams in the top 60 in the NCAA RPI.
• ASU is led by a returning All-American. Nicole DouglasDouglas, the program’s all-time career leader in goals (60), points (140) and game-winning goals (17), finished the regular season 7th nationally in goals per game (0.82). They ranked 11th in points per game (1.82). , 25th in shots on goal per game (1.88) and 29th in game-winning goals (4).
• Douglas is one of the fifth grade quartet. Forward Douglas (88 games/88 starts) Olivia Nguyen (78 appearances/51 appearances. 50 appearances in last 54 games since start of junior season) Alexia Delgado (81 games/74 games) Eva Van Dusen (86 games/81 starts). His four players – Douglas (14G/3A), Van Dusen (7G/5A), Delgado (5G/5A) and Nguyen (2G/4A) – have combined for 28 goals and 17 assists this season. , Appeared in a total of 333 games. , including 294 starts.
• On November 8, Douglas was named the Pac-12 Forward of the Year in addition to First Team All-Pac-12 honors. Douglas was one of his four Sun Devils – the same player in his fifth year Alexia Delgado (Second Team All-Pac-12) and Eva Van Dusen (3rd Team All-Pac-12) and freshman goaltender Pauline Nelles (3rd Team All-Pac-12, Pac-12 All-Freshman Team) – will be honored by the league head coaches who voted for the award . All four players played a key role in helping the Sun Devils qualify for his second NCAA Tournament in three seasons.
• Lucy Johnson (vs. UAB) and Kennedy Mayo (vs. Toledo) both tied school records for assists in a game (3).