Pac-12 Play Continues as Huskies Host Utah on Thursday

SEATTLE – Coming off of the first blemish to its record in 2022, Washington returns to Seattle for a pair of Pac-12 home matches this week, beginning with a Thursday night matchup with Utah at the Husky Soccer Stadium.

The match will be available on Pac-12 Mountain. Live Stats can be found at HuskyStats.com.

SCOUTING UTAH

Utah is in its second season under head coach Hideki Nakada. During Nakada’s first season with the Utes, Utah finished 6-10-4 record overall, including 1-7-3 in Pac-12 play. Prior to making the move to Salt Lake City, Nakada spent seven seasons as an assistant at Stanford.

 

The Utes enter Thursday’s clash with a 5-2-2 overall record but have yet to win a match away from home at 0-1-1. Utah was one of six Pac-12 teams to open conference play with a victory, topping Arizona 2-1 in SLC.

 

Utah is led in scoring by junior forward Taliana Kaufusi, who has scored five of the Utes’ 14 goals in 2022. Meanwhile, freshman defender Ryann Cull paces the Utes with three assists on the season.

Sophomore goalkeeper Evie Vitali has seen nearly all of the action in goal for Utah, posting a 0.91 goals against average with a .778 save percentage on 28 stops.

SERIES HISTORY

The Huskies and Utes have split the previous 15 meetings in the series with respective 7-7-1 records. Washington holds a 4-2-0 record all-time at home against Utah despite dropping the most recent decision, a 1-0 Ute victory at Husky Soccer Stadium in 2019.

 

LAST MEETING (10/03/21)

SALT LAKE CITY – Washington tied Utah 1-1 on Sunday afternoon at Ute Field. In the match, the Huskies opened the scoring in the 26th minute but Utah leveled during the second half in a tight battle throughout.

 

McKenzie Weinert scored her first goal as a Husky midway through the first half when the Utah goalkeeper’s misplay landed at the feet of Weinert, who calmly scored in the open net.

 

Utah leveled in the second half at 1-1, off Taliana Kaufusi’s headed ball in the 54th minute.

 

The big story of the day was Olivia Sekany,  who came up big multiple times, totaling nine saves in the match, a career high. In the 10th minute Sekany was challenged as she deflected a Ute shot off the post and then knocked away the follow-up shot. Again in the 64th minute, Sekany came up with a big save on the near post to keep the score level.

 

The Huskies totaled 15 shots in the match, seven on goal, with…