On paper, it is a group of girls with different stories.
They are 13 freshman, eight sophomores, four juniors and three seniors from different parts of the country, each with their own individual goals.
They are forwards, midfielders and defenders with different sizes, shapes and attitudes.
But on the field, none of that matters.
“Once you step on the field, there is no freshman,” senior midfielder Carly Kallas said. “There is no senior. We are all one team. Once we cross that white line, we’re all the same age. We’re just in there to play hard and get a result. Class doesn’t matter on the field.”
And this weekend, the ASU women’s soccer team will put it to the test.
In their first tournament of the 2009 season, the Sun Devils will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take part in the Lady Vol Classic, where they will take on No. 23 Tennessee on Friday night and Kansas on Sunday.
“They’re the kind of competitors we want to play against,” senior defender Liz Harkin said. “We want to play against the best and see how we measure up. Especially to play these teams out of conference, we want to put ourselves out there and set a tone. We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to play hard.”
Both Tennessee and Kansas made the NCAA Tournament last season, and each team boasted a win in their first game of the season.
In Tennessee, it was senior forward Mick Ingram who scored two goals for the Lady Vols to aid in goalkeeper Molly Baird’s first career shutout in their 2-0 victory over ETSU.
“Tennessee is always a playoff team,” coach Kevin Boyd said. “The good thing about playing them so early in the season is that they’re going to show us where we need to be for playoffs and give us a good indicator of where we are right now.”
Kansas beat Drake 2-0 on Sunday and will face Pepperdine on Friday before their matchup with the Sun Devils.
Though it is their first road trip of the season, the Sun Devils aren’t worried.
“We’ve been in that situation before,” Harkin said. “We’ve traveled across the country, so we’re just looking at it like any other weekend — one game at a time. It’s a good opponent, but we’re still looking to win every time.”
What’s more important to the team, its members said, is the character with which it performs.
“This weekend is going to be a telltale sign of what our season is going to be personnel wise, personality wise on the field, character on the field,” Kallas said. “It’s completely different on the road, so it’s definitely going to be a judge of character to see how we step up, but I’m not worried about our team stepping up. I think we are all going to come out, pull off some wins and start a winning streak that we desperately need.”
The Sun Devils are scheduled to kick off the tournament on Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern time against the Lady Vols.
Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.
