Arizona soccer head coach Becca Moros wanted strong teams on the schedule for RPI purposes and to challenge her players. A trip to Stanford was always going to be that kind of match. It’s an even bigger match with the Cardinal ascending to No. 1 in this week’s United Soccer Coaches poll.
“These are huge games for us,” Moros said. “Stanford is a big test. We get to match up against the big dogs and see what number one looks like this year. I think that will help us measure ourselves and prepare us for some of our toughest conference games as well. And then, obviously, after facing Stanford to turn around and have to go also play another top team in Cal. This means you got to put together back-to-back performances.”
The trip to the Bay Area to take on Stanford and California will definitely give the Wildcats an idea of where they are and help boost their RPI. It will also prepare them for a Big 12 season that may be more challenging than previously thought.
Everyone knows about TCU, which is ranked fourth this week. BYU is sitting at No. 11. It’s the teams that were expected to struggle that are pulling out some surprise wins against Power 4 teams.
The league had a good week of nonconference play by teams that had a difficult go of things last season. Houston, which finished next-to-last in the league in 2024, dominated Texas in a 4-1 match. The Longhorns finished last season ranked No. 21 and were ranked No. 19 in the preseason poll.
UCF took out LSU 2-1. The Knights were 13th in the 16-team league last year.
“The better that all of the Big 12 teams do in nonconference play, then the bigger each of our games against each other,” Moros said. “So, you kind of almost are rooting for each other until you get to the conference play, and then you’re like, ‘I hate you.”
Overall, the Big 12 has the fewest losses among Division I teams and the best win-loss-tie percentage. Moros sees more parity across the sport, but she’s not sure if it’s a permanent change or just the ebbs and flows of the early season.
“You’re seeing a lot of upsets, teams coming into their own in their first four and five games, where they might have dropped some games and then started to knock off some people,” Moros said. “I don’t know if the roster cap or roster sizes or different things will affect parity across the board, and you’ll see more competitive players spreading out on more teams or not. But that is the potential for one of the changes is that it’s going to make the whole game across the country more competitive as people cannot just carry 30 and 35 people on a roster. So, it changes the landscape a little bit. I don’t know if we see that change that fast or if it’s just the beginning of the year where everybody’s establishing their game plans and their game models and teaching their new players.”
What does that mean for the Wildcats, especially as they go into a game that no one expects them to win? Arizona has yet to concede a goal this year but has also only scored eight goals in its three matches. While the Wildcats have dominated possession, they haven’t necessarily found the back of the net as much as they might like. In last week’s match against New Mexico State, Moros and her players felt that they didn’t come out and attack from the beginning.
“We were playing slow ourselves, so we just needed to take our chances and get more in behind,” said sophomore midfielder Lily Boydstun. “We had a couple chances that we didn’t take advantage of. Going forward, we’ve been talking about working on and taking advantage of them, because it wasn’t good enough.”
It certainly won’t be good enough against the Cardinal. Stanford has outscored its opponents 19-2 in four matches, giving up a single goal to Santa Clara and St. Mary’s. The players will have to adapt to the uptick in competition and take advantage of any opening they get.
“Our game plans will be different,” Moros said. “We’ve got some new stuff we’re going to ask of the players to play against Stanford, which is just the nature of we’ve had most of the ball in our last three games. We will likely not have most of the ball in this game. We can hope to have as much of it as we want, but it’s not going to be 70-30 us. So we have to be prepared for Stanford to have a lot of the ball, and what that means. And we’ve got to do the things that we’ve been doing well, as far as defending together, and being really disciplined and organized and playing well for a full 90 minutes. And then when we get our chances, we’ll have to be precise. We’re not going to get a lot of chances. They’re not going to give up 15 chances so we can shoot 15 times and score once. That’s not going to happen. So if we get three chances, we better score.”
Up Next for Arizona Soccer
Arizona Wildcats (3-0) @ No. 1 Stanford Cardinal (4-0)
When: Thursday, Aug. 28 @ 7 p.m. MST
Where: Maloney Field at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium in Stanford, Calif.
Stats: Stanford Live Stats
Arizona Wildcats (3-0) @ California Golden Bears (2-1-1)
When: Sunday, Aug. 31 @ 1 p.m. MST
Where: Edwards Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.
The team had a similar game against then-No. 2 North Carolina last season. Arizona played to a very respectable 2-0 loss on the road. Goalkeeper Olivia Ramey was key to that result. She faced 24 total shots and 11 shots on goal. She saved nine of them.
“She was big-time when we played Carolina last year, so she knows she can do it against the best,” Moros said. “So here’s another opportunity for her to prove that. And probably she’s waiting for it. She wants to impact the game and help us win.”
Like that UNC match last year, Ramey will likely face her toughest task of the year in this early-season match. It will be a dramatic difference from the first three matches, when she faced just 13 total shots and four shots on goal. The Cardinal have taken 106 shots in four matches. They have put 49 of those shots on goal and 19 in the net.
Moros doesn’t think the lack of in-game challenges will be a problem for Ramey.
“She sees it in training,” Moros said. “I mean, she’s been a beast in training. She’s 1-v-1s, aerial duels, coming out with 2-v-1s and making big saves…So I think Liv is ready for that challenge.”
Arizona will likely need the kind of opportunistic goals that sophomore forward Jessica Bedolla has provided this season. Bedolla scored the Wildcats’ only goal in their exhibition at NAU. She scored two on the road at NMSU last week, tying her with Aurora Gaines for the team lead in goals.
“I feel like my hold-up play allows us to build more successfully and under more control, and I’m good at finishing,” Bedolla said. “That’s what our front line needs.”
Boydstun’s play in the midfield has also been critical for the offense so far. She has a goal and two assists, tying Bedolla for second on the team in points. It’s exactly what she came to Arizona to do. Arizona has played the possession style with more acumen than at any time during Moros’ five years at the helm. Boydstun transferring to Arizona is just one reason why.
“I just think it’s better soccer, and it’s easier to play with people when we play that way,” Boydstun said. “And that’s just something I think I’m better at than playing in a direct style, so that’s why [Arizona] fit me best.”
It would be a shock for the Wildcats to return to Tucson with a 5-0 record, but a good showing at Stanford and possibly stealing the road match at Cal could set them up well for their final three home games before Big 12 play starts. It could make the difference when the tournament field is selected and seeded.
Christopher Thomas, who writes about RPI in women’s college soccer, starts his early projections after the first week. After two matches, he had Arizona projected to finish No. 32 in the RPI. After week two, his formula has moved the Wildcats up to No. 28. Massey Ratings has had the Wildcats at No. 28 after both weeks. It’s extremely early, but if Arizona can maintain that pace, it could end up not just in the tournament but also as one of the 32 national seeds.
There’s a lot to play for this week.
