FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas women’s soccer coach Colby Hale didn’t want to talk about any silver linings in his team’s 0-2 start to the season.
The Razorbacks opened the season with narrow road losses to a pair of teams ranked among the top 6 in the country last weekend. Hale said they learned things from those losses, but now the focus is on No. 24 Brigham Young, which comes to Razorback Field today for a 7 p.m. start for the first meeting ever between the two schools. The match will be streamed on SEC Network plus.
“We don’t talk in terms of moral victories,” Hale said. “That being said, we did this on purpose. If our goals are big we have to play a team that will punish us for the things we don’t do well. They were certainly good enough to do that.
“I think we’re in a good place. We’ve got another big, big match coming up. BYU just beat Southern Cal, 2-1.”
Anna Podojil, an All-Southeastern Conference first-team selection last season as a sophomore, said the team’s excited to play at home where they have an enthusiastic crowd. The Razorbacks are also 8-4 all-time against ranked opponents.
“I feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve played in front of a real home crowd,” Podojil said. “I think just the home crowd here at Arkansas gives our team an extra, I don’t know an extra step. It’s almost like having a 12th man out on the field.”
The Razorbacks, who fell out of the United Soccer Coaches’ Poll after being ranked 15th in the preseason, lost 3-1 at No. 5 Duke to start the season, then dropped a 1-0 match in extra time at No. 2 North Carolina three days later.
Hale said Arkansas had a call go against them in the Duke match, but his team didn’t react well afterward.
“The PK against Duke, the second one, on review that’s not a PK,” Hale said. “We didn’t even touch the kid. OK, it was a bad call but everybody makes mistakes right? How we reacted we can control. We didn’t control that very well and that’s something we talked about. This is all a learning process though and we want to peak in November and December.
“The message clearly is we’re not there yet. That’s not surprising or alarming honestly.”
In addition, Podojil said the team got tired in the heat and didn’t respond well following a weather delay prior to extra time in Chapel Hill. North Carolina scored less than seven minutes into overtime for the win.
“Obviously our fitness level was lacking a little bit,” Podojil said. “We learned we need to increase our depth on the bench and be able to have players come into the game and actually change the game and increase the level.
“Second game, I think the delay really got us. I think some people were struggling with little injuries and knocks after the 90 minutes, cramping. And I think having that time, I don’t think we were as mentally ready as we woulda been if we had gone straight into overtime.”
But the Razorbacks have to be ready for another strong opponent tonight in BYU (2-1).
“They’re actually probably similar to us,” Hale said. “They’re incredibly athletic, very high tempo, really good attacking players. It’s a really good team. From an entertainment standpoint should be great. Neither team sits in and defends with a lot of numbers.
“If it’s 1-0 it won’t be for lack of chances.”