By
Audrey DeAnda
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA, ASU struggling entering showdown
The UA soccer team is expecting a "dogfight" tonight when they travel to Tempe to take on Arizona State.
The trip up I-10 will be the last for UA senior goalkeeper Inger Airheart.
"ASU is just going to be a dogfight - we just can't back down at all," Airheart said. "We both are going to come out and be very, very aggressive the whole entire match, so we have to prepare for that mentally."
UA head coach Cathy Klein is optimistic about the Wildcats' chances at earning their first Pacific 10 Conference win against the Sun Devils.
"Arizona State is a very talented team," Klein said. "We're catching them at a lower point right now (ASU having lost five of their last seven games), but I suspect that it will be an excellent, highly competitive, fierce battle."
The trip to ASU will be the team's last road match of the season and one of the team's largest challenges of the year.
The Sun Devils (11-5-0 overall, 2-4-0 in Pac-10) are undefeated in the series with Arizona (5-0-0). In their last meeting, ASU shut out the Wildcats, 4-0 at Murphey Stadium.
UA junior midfielder Twila Kaufman said the ASU game is just like any other game Arizona will play, though.
"Playing-wise, it's just another game that we have to stay focused for and not let our emotions get the best of us," Kaufman said. "But on the emotional side, it's going to be an absolute battle, and the team that can stay the most composed is the team that's going to win."
ASU junior midfielder Stacey Tullock leads the Sun Devils in scoring with 12 goals and five assists. Freshman forward Patrice Feulner is a close second in scoring, with 10 goals and seven assists.
The Sun Devils - like Arizona - will try to bounce back after getting swept by both Bay Area schools, California and Stanford, this past weekend in California.
After getting shut out last weekend by both California and Stanford last weekend, UA will try to get its offense on track against the Sun Devils.
Arizona freshman forward Liz Bartlett is the Wildcats' offensive leader, topping the team's scoring list with four goals and one assist on 38 shots.
Airheart and junior goalkeeper Shannon Monti are expected to split time in front of the net.
Despite their six-game losing streak - the Wildcats are 3-11-2 overall and 0-5-1 in conference play - Klein is happy with the team's progress.
"From an external position, it may seem like a disappointing season - from an internal perspective, we are very proud of where we are right now," Klein said.
"You can respond to any situation positively or negatively. We talk about it everyday how we need to respond with character and positively rather than negativity because negative or positively is contagious."
