The University of Arizona women's soccer team wrapped up their 2017 season on Nov. 17 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, finishing with an 11-5-4 (7-2-2 Pac-12) record. The Wildcats walk away from this season with a list of achievements to add to the program's history:
- Arizona's seniors became the first group in program history to make three NCAA Tournament appearances, winning at least one match in each Tournament. The program had only two appearances in its history prior to the last four years.
- Stoian's third-team All-Pac-12 honor was her third all-conference honor as a Wildcat.
- The seniors also tallied 45 wins as a group, the most ever for a senior class.
- Finished fourth in the Pac-12, tied for the program's second-best finish of all time with 2015 and behind the 2004 Pac-12 Championship.
- Placed three players (Morgan McGarry, Lainey Burdett and Gabi Stoian) on the all-conference teams, tied for most all-time.
- Posted an eight game unbeaten streak, the second longest in program history.
- Tallied seven Pac-12 wins, the most in program history.
- Lost only two Pac-12 matches, the fewest in program history.
- Hosted only the second ever NCAA Tournament match, where they came from behind to defeat TCU in a 2-1 match.
- Tallied the second-highest attendance record for a match at 1,245 when the Cats beat Oregon 3-1.
"I was really proud of the group in terms of the effort they put in," said head coach Tony Amato. "I really wanted the team to make the NCAA tournament, especially the senior group. Their ownership in the program has been awesome. To go to three out of four NCAA Tournaments felt like a really good achievement for them. They should be proud of their careers here from what they committed to years ago when they were going through the recruiting process to over four years later where they are now. I'm so proud of the seniors for their ownership and leadership this year. I'm proud of the team for their effort and performance this year. When you take it all in as a whole, I thought we did well."
There were also a number of individual achievements that are of note from the season:
- Cali Crisler finished seventh in the Pac-12 in assists per game, while Gabi Stoian finished sixth in shots per game.
- Goalkeeper Lainey Burdett closed the season with a goals-against average of 0.81, the second-lowest mark by a goalkeeper in program history by a margin of over 0.2. Her 85 saves were second most in the Pac-12.
- Burdett also closed with seven shutouts on the season, the third-best mark by a goalkeeper in Arizona history. She also has the second most shutouts all-time with one more year to play.
- Stoian ended her career with the second-most goals (29), assists (22), and points (80) in program history. She is the all-time leader in shots and holds the fifth spot for most game-winners.
- Stoian's third-team All-Pac-12 honor was her third all-conference honor as a Wildcat.
"You see seven assists and three goals for Cali [Crisler], those are good numbers for the position she played," said Amato. "But you can't measure her growth, development and ownership in the team, her leadership qualities. The more I do this, the more I realize that it's important that players like her are focused, bought in, and take ownership in the results, the training sessions, and the vibe of the team. Our older players had a handle on all of that. They were good players and they played well this year, but I knew early on that we'd be okay in terms of their ownership and leadership. We had a training session that didn't go well, and they came to me at the end of the session and said that it wouldn't happen again. When you have that, you know that your team is going to be coachable, follow a game plan, and work really hard to get a result. You know that they are committed to the cause."
"We've always felt like [Lainey Burdett] was a legitimate Pac-12 goalkeeper," said Amato. "She's worked really hard with Paul [Nagy] to keep fine-tuning her game and not settling. She has added all these little steps along the way to improve her game. That commitment shows that she deserved to be at the least, second-team all-conference if not first team. She's set herself up to have a great senior year next year. If she continues to have that same attitude, she has the potential to be the best goalkeeper in the Pac-12."
Arizona scored only five goals in its first six matches and started the season at 2-2-2 ahead of Pac-12 play. Amato knew that he had a lot of work to do if the team wanted to earn another NCAA Tournament berth. The Cats then turned their offensive ability around as they scored 20 goals in their next 14 games.
"After the start we had, I felt like there was some work we needed to do to make the NCAA Tournament. It's always work, but we really felt like we needed to figure some things out if we were going to improve and get better. Every year is different – some years we come flying out of the gates and then stumble into the tournament. This year was the complete opposite – it felt like we were stumbling in the beginning trying to put our stamp on an identity and then once we figured that out the group took off. I felt like early on we could right the ship, fix some things, get better in some areas, and put a run together. When you don't get off to great start, it can be tough to maneuver the Pac-12 schedule ahead. To go through a season where we only lost in the Pac-12 to Stanford and USC felt pretty special."
The defense remained consistent all season, allowing only 17 goals in 20 matches. The Wildcats only gave up more than one goal three times (never more than two goals allowed), and all against ranked teams in UCF, UCLA, and FSU.
"It's funny – early on that was probably our trouble. We focused so much on how we were going to stop teams. We knew that Lainey [Burdett] was really good and we knew that our back line would be able to stop people from scoring. We spent a lot of time working with our forwards and midfielders in front of the backline to make sure we defended well as a team. The good thing about that was that we didn't give up goals early. It also meant we weren't attacking very well early on because we were so focused on stopping the other team. As a whole, because of how we trained and having Lainey [Burdett] in goal and having all those players in front of her focused on how to stop the other team, I think that's why we were all year long so good defensively."
The Wildcats also added assistant coach Kate Norton this season from the Seattle Sounders. The team raved about their new coach that brought a professional attitude and a detail-oriented mindset to the team, and Amato was not one to disagree.
"She's a smart person with good ideas who the girls respected. If you have that, it's going to go a long way with players. She's very detail oriented, works hard, studied the game, helped us organize, met individually with players – she's totally all in and invested in making us better. That's super valuable when you have people like that. Paul [Nagy] has been like that with us for years, and now we have Kate [Norton] as well. I can't do everything, so they both take things off my plate and help make the team better. We have three coaches that are committed and that only makes the program better. They are a huge part of our success this season."
Arizona's fourth-place finish in the Pac-12 didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the Pac-12. Amato knows that, and is sure that his success with the program will only continue to take them to new heights.
"The most important thing is that we are now a relevant school in the Pac-12. I can't speak exactly as to where we stand in the Pac-12 in terms of 'soccer school' labels and all that stuff. But it feels like we're in the conversation, we're relevant, we matter and that's exciting and hopefully we can continue to build on that."