The Wildcat women’s soccer team will travel to Colorado Thursday to start its season against the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
The second of the two games will be on Saturday against Colorado State-Pueblo.
“This weekend gives us an opportunity to see where we stand as a team,” said Coach Casey Wilson. “Hopefully, we will go into these games full strength, but we are a little banged up right now.”
The Wildcats are looking to produce more offense with a revamped attack. Krysta Grimm and Ashley Holton return to the team after being injured last year. Courtney Wilson and Julie Coppedge return this season as well to lead the offense. Coppedge played last year in a defensive role. She will look to move up this season to give the offense a boost.
The defense will be strengthened by the return of Anastasia Nelson. Nelson missed all of last season with a knee injury but received a medical redshirt. Nelson will play a key role in the defense, along with returning players Bree Craig and Kendall Cooper.
“I love this sport, and I am very excited to get play again,” Nelson said. “I love all of my teammates and feel like we have a very good team this year.”
The Mountain Lions, ACU’s first opponent, enter the season picked to finish sixth out of 14 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s preseason coaches poll.
Last season, the Mountain Lions were 7-10-1 overall and 6-9-1 in conference. Kristin Preble led the team in points last season and will return as a junior. Juniors Jessica Escobedo and Julia Saenz are also looking to lead the Mountain Lion’s offense.
The Wildcats will travel to Pueblo, Colorado on Saturday to take on the Thunderwolves of Colorado State University-Pueblo. The Thunderwolves have played three exhibition games, dropping all three of them. The last two games were handed to LSC members. The Thunderwolves lost to Eastern New Mexico 2-1 and West Texas A&M by the same score. However, theses games were just exhibitions, and the Thunderwolves season does not officially kick off until Saturday when they host the Wildcats.
The Wildcats are looking to start the season on a good note and turn some heads in the process.
“The RMAC is a very strong soccer conference,” Coach Wilson said. “Both of these teams were picked in the middle of the pack of their conference, but they should be as good as anyone we face in conference this season, so it is a great indicator for us.”
