The offseason is here for most Arizona sports, the 2025-26 season in the books and the 2026-27 seasons still a few months away.
What better time than now to press pause and check the pulse of each Wildcat program?
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in, as well as the prospects for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it has performed under the current coaching staff, comparing it to how it looked
beforehand, and assess how it fits into the Big 12 Conference.
Next up: Soccer under Becca Moros
How it looked before
Arizona soccer was never going to be mistaken for UCLA, Stanford, or North Carolina. It had garnered a bit of respectability with regular trips to the NCAA Tournament under former head coach Tony Amato, though.
Amato left for a ill-fated job offer at Florida in May of 2021. He finished his Arizona tenure with the program’s most coaching wins at 88-53-17 overall and 39-39-9 in the Pac-12.
Moros was finally announced as the new coach on June 16, 2021. She had just six weeks to get ready for practice and two months to be on the field.
Moros leaned heavily on fifth-year star Jill Aguilera her first season at the helm. Aguilera set the career goals record at Arizona in the fall of 2021, but that’s probably the highlight of Moros’ five-year tenure in Tucson.
Arizona had two near misses when it was one of the last teams left out of the tournament, but near misses are poor consolation. The team had a relatively strong 11-6-2 overall and 6-4-1 conference season in 2024. It was the first time the Wildcats had double-digit wins since 2019 and their most conference wins since 2017.
The program lost most of its scoring after 2024 and took a backslide in 2025. Arizona finished 7-11-1 overall and 2-8-1 in the Big 12.
Moros changed the rather chaotic style of Amato, which focused on using speed to get down the field quickly and score before the defense could catch up. In its place is a possession style that jettisons the direct ball in favor of building from the back with shorter passes. Moros has said the style is the most fun and the most beautiful, and she has remained strong in her devotion to it regardless of results.
Taking Stock 2026
The offseason provides a great opportunity to evaluate each of Arizona’s athletic programs under its current leadership. Check back each day for another sport breakdown.
Tuesday, June 16: Men’s and women’s track and field
Sunday, May 31: Football
Monday, June 1: Volleyball
Tuesday, June 2: Soccer
Wednesday, June 3: Triathlon
Thursday, June 4: Cross country
Friday, June 5: Men’s and women’s swimming
Saturday, June 6: Women’s basketball
Sunday, June 7: Men’s basketball
Monday, June 8: Gymnastics
Tuesday, June 9: Beach volleyball
Wednesday, June 10: Women’s golf
Thursday, June 11: Women’s tennis
Friday, June 12: Men’s tennis
Saturday, June 13: Baseball
Sunday, June 14: Softball
Monday, June 15: Men’s golf
Moros went into the 2025 season with a 30-34-10 coaching record. She was 16-24-4 in conference play with three years in the Pac-12 and one in the Big 12. Heading into the final season of her contract, she has a career record of 37-45-11 overall and 18-32-5 in league play.
Where things stand now
If offense was tough to come by last season, it could be even more difficult in 2026. Arizona lost a large chuck of its offensive production to graduation and transfer after the 2025 season. The rising juniors were especially depleted.
Top scorer Aurora Gaines transferred to Arizona after her freshman season at LSU. She led the Wildcats with 11 points and tied for the lead with four goals as a sophomore. Her three assists were tied for second. She headed back to the SEC after one season in Tucson.
Fellow rising junior Narissa Fults joined Gaines on the way out. Fults had been one of the most promising young forwards on the team for two years, but the Wildcats won’t see how far she can take that. She left with her two goals, three assists, and seven points.
Rose Calkins, who had one goal and four assists in her two years at Arizona, became the third member of the class to transfer. Talented defender Kennedy Fletcher was the fourth and reserve goalkeeper Kayla Kirchoffner was the fifth.
On the graduation front, Arizona lost four-year starter Sami Baytosh. She had two goals and led the team with four assists her senior year. Her eight points were tied for third on the team.
The offensive losses are the most glaring considering the difficulties the Wildcats had with scoring in 2025. Those weren’t the only losses, though. The team also lost quite a bit of talent on the defensive end.
In addition to transfers Fletcher and Kirchoffner, Arizona lost senior keeper Olivia Ramey and senior defenders Ella Hatteberg and Maia Brown.
That’s not to say that the Wildcats are without quality returners. Junior Jess Bedolla tied Gaines for the team lead with four goals last year. She will be the team’s top scoring returner.
Lily Boydstun was a balanced offensive presence last season with three goals, three assists, and nine points. Her goals and assists tied for second on the team. Her points placed her alone in second place.
While she didn’t score a goal last year, sophomore Kyleigh Johnson showed a lot of promise during her freshman season. She ended with one assist, but it was her activity that was most impressive. The same can be said of fellow second-year player Whitney Reinhardt.
Arizona also gets grad student Trinity Dorsey back for a redshirt year. Defense will have some experience with Zoe Mendiola, Aranda Hurge, and Marissa Arnst.
Sofia Cortes-Browne will presumably step in as the keeper after patiently waiting her turn behind Ramey for the past two years.
There are some fairly big concerns, though. Arizona scored just 22 goals last season. The players who scored 10 of those are gone. The team had 20 assists. The players responsible for 13 of those either graduated or transferred.
The Wildcats have just one goalkeeper on the roster. While teams typically play the same keeper all year, injuries happen. They must keep Cortes-Browne in bubble wrap or they could be in serious trouble.
Cortes-Browne will be getting a lot of personal attention. Former Pima College assistant coach Nils Roth was hired in the offseason. He has the title of assistant/goalkeeper coach. He replaces former coach Sebastian Pineda Gordillo, but Pineda Gordillo did not train the keepers. That role used to be covered by assistant coach Nat Gonzalez, who is still with the program.
Moros signed a class of four last November. Defender Amanda Maynard finished high school and joined the team a semester early. so she was able to take part in spring matches. Fellow defender Alexa Khan will come aboard for fall. They will be joined by midfielders Ashley May and Emerson Stoft, both of whom were described as attackers when they signed.
Life in the Big 12
No one is going to confuse Big 12 soccer with Pac-12 or ACC soccer. There are several solid squads in the league, though.
Arizona had a very good first year in the league, finishing 6-4-1. That record tied No. 6 Kansas, but KU won the head-to-head match in Tucson, so the Wildcats got the 7 seed in the conference tournament.
The team had a win over BYU, a draw against West Virginia, and a close loss to TCU. However, losses to Utah, Houston, and Kansas were followed by an early loss in the Big 12 Tournament. That kept them out of the NCAA Tournament.
Nicole Dallin, Gianna Christiansen, and Megan Chelf exhausted their eligibility in 2024. That was always going to take its toll, but it turned out to be an even bigger hit than expected.
The Wildcats’ seven overall wins in 2025 were just one more than their conference wins in 2024. They finished 14th in the league standings and failed to make the Big 12 Tournament.
One big question
The question for Arizona soccer isn’t just about one year. It’s about the next several. Can Arizona return to the days of being a regular tournament participant, and will Moros be the one to lead it there?
It doesn’t look promising for either part of that question.
Five players transferred out after last year. The program did not announce the addition of any transfers this offseason, and it’s easy to understand why.
Despite the belief by some that the transfer portal makes coaching stability a moot point in recruiting, there’s very little reason for even a transfer to look at a program that may lose its coach in six months. Most players aren’t transferring into a program with the intention of transferring again the following season. They want to know that the coach they’re committing to will actually be there for more than one semester.
Add in the reality that Arizona hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and has very poor facilities, and it’s not an attractive option for transfers. The facts that the program has been allowed to fall this far and there was no move to improve the situation could well mean several more years of struggle.
Can Moros right the ship against all odds, save her job, and possibly save the program from an even bigger decline in the coming years?
