Kansas and Kansas State had good chances of winning their opening Big 12 soccer matches last week. Instead, they were both victims of what Arizona head coach Becca Moros says is the parity across the country.
The Jayhawks traveled to Cincinnati to take on a Bearcats team that came into the match at 2-2-3. The home team is ranked No. 160 in the RPI. KU (6-2-1) is No. 53 in the selection rankings. UC secured the 1-1 draw to earn a point in the Big 12.
It was an even worse result for the Wildcats from
Manhattan. K-State has been up and down over the past few years, finishing 12th in the Big 12 last season and 16th the year before. They were having success in the early going this season, though. They have 5-1-3 record and sit at No. 66 in the RPI. They were also home last week.
The Houston team that traveled to Manhattan is not the team of the past few years. The Cougars have won a total of three Big 12 matches over the past two years. This year, they have challenged themselves, playing No. 3 Vanderbilt to a one-goal loss and No. 23 Memphis to a 1-1 draw. They have a 5-1-3 overall record and a No. 46 RPI.
The Cougars dominated K-State in a 3-0 road win.
The results weren’t terribly surprising to Moros. Her own team drew with a ranked BYU team at home last week, after all.
“First games of the conference, I think anything can happen,” Moros said. “There’s a lot of talented players on a lot of teams, so I just think that the overall level of the conference is very high. Everybody has home field advantages as well, so like since these home field advantage is relevant. Cincinnati, it’s a hard place for us to play. I’m sure it’s a hard place for other people to play. I hope [Mulcahy] is a hard place for people to play, too. So, I think that that’s a part of that first weekend…And and then, I mean, I watched some of that Houston K-State game, and I don’t really know where it got away from K-State because I didn’t see that in the part of the game that I watched, but obviously three goals, Houston deserves a lot of credit for that.”
If the Arizona Wildcats are to pull off the upsets and improve their own RPI of 124, it may mean getting help from unusual places.
The result against BYU was set up by a player who has had some ups and downs in her previous three years at Arizona. Midfielder Shanti Weddington subbed into a game for the first time this year with less than 25 minutes to go against the Cougars.
Weddington averaged just 22 minutes per game in 13 matches last season. It was the lowest of her career prior to this season. As a sophomore, she played 34 mpg in a career high 18 matches, tallying a goal and an assist. As a freshman, she made 13 appearances, averaging a career high 38 mpg. It hasn’t always been an easy ride.
“It’s a lot,” Weddington said. “It’s hard mentally because I have been injured a lot through the seasons and stuff, but I’m here for my teammates…I was just so happy to get on the field and do whatever I could for my teammates no matter what it was, just to get those minutes.”
Weddington took a shot from outside, sending it towards the goal. It wasn’t terribly dangerous as a shot, but it ended up as an assist when a poor clearance bounced it back to Lainey Swanson in the box. Swanson made a great slide towards the ball to knock it into the goal and tie the game with about five minutes to go.
“I really had nothing in my mind,” Weddington said. “I was just like we need a goal and I saw opportunity to shoot the ball and I shot it. Obviously it wasn’t the best shot, but it worked out, so yeah, I just was like, anything can happen.”
Up Next for Arizona Soccer
Arizona Wildcats (3-4-2, 0-0-1) @ Kansas State Wildcats (5-1-3, 0-1-0)
When: Thursday, Sept. 24 @ 4:30 p.m. MST
Where: Buser Family Park in Manhattan, Kan.
Streaming: ESPN+
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
Arizona Wildcats (3-4-2, 0-0-1) @ Kansas Jayhawks (6-2-1, 0-0-1)
When: Sunday, Sept. 27 @ 11 a.m. MST
Where: Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kan.
Streaming: ESPN+
Stats: Arizona Live Stats
“Anything can happen” in those situations because Weddington’s shot was sufficiently targeted towards the goal and BYU had to make a play. It forced the Cougars to make a decision. That decision backfired when the ball deflected in the wrong direction.
While Arizona tends to limit its shots, taking more in the middle of the field and closer to the goal than some of its opponents, the “anything can happen” mantra may lead to more success at this point. The shot chart from the BYU game was a prime example. Most of the Cougars’ shots came from outside the box, but they had control of the game until Weddington took her longshot.
The Wildcats regularly put a higher percentage of their shots on goal than their opponents do, but they also have struggled to score for the past couple of years. They average 1.11 goals per game this season. Last year, the average was 1.16. They have not averaged more than their opponents since 2024, when they were good for 1.68 goals per game while giving up 0.89 per game. That was the best season under Moros both on the offensive and defensive ends of the field.
This year, it often looks like players are searching for the perfect shot and hesitate too long. They either miss the window to shoot altogether or the defense closes in during that time and blocks the shot. The Wildcats are creating opportunities and getting into the box, but those opportunities fail to result in shots too often.
Enter Weddington, whose urgency to make something happen in the final minutes of the game created enough disorganization in the BYU back line that Swanson got the goal. That combination of urgency and keeping the ball in play got Arizona the critical point.
“Ally [Brown] also had another shot that was, you know, kind of unremarkable when you when you think about it afterwards, but realistically, because it was on frame it turned into a corner…So those are the kinds of things that you can easily dismiss as not that important, but they are absolutely the reason that you have too more chances and the goal. So it’s big time.”
Getting points in the state of Kansas would also be big time. The two matches provide two opportunities for Arizona to get results against teams in the top 100 of the RPI, hopefully improving their own RPI from No. 124. They are currently 0-3-1 against that level of competition.
