FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas women’s soccer team had its match pushed back a day because of covid-19 issues within the Stephen F. Austin team. But Coach Colby Hale is just happy to be playing.
The Lumberjacks canceled their match at Oklahoma State at Thursday, but will face the Razorbacks at noon today at Razorback Field after it was originally set for Sunday. The match will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus.
“We only played one last weekend, and we already had someone cancel on us this week that was originally on the schedule,” Hale said. “So yes, we need to play.”
Stephen F. Austin (1-2-1) defeated Texas State 2-1 last Sunday but hasn’t played since. The Lumberjacks also lost 3-1 to LSU of the SEC in an exhibition match to begin the season.
The Razorbacks (1-2) blanked No. 24 Brigham Young 2-0 on Monday in the home opener in front of 2,370 fans to finish off an incredibly difficult start to the season. Junior forward Anna Podojil scored both goals. They lost back-to-back matches on the road to Duke and North Carolina — two teams nationally ranked in the top 5 — to start the season.
Arkansas was obviously hoping to be 3-0 at this point, but Hale has still learned plenty about his team at this point.
“We were joking going back to last year — our last four were pretty tough,” Hale said. “Santa Clara won the national championship. We started off tough because we wanted to. We knew it would be challenging.
“Sometimes you have these grand plans and you work on things and you play games that don’t ask everything of you and you don’t really know who you are. We have a pretty good sense of what we need to work on, but we feel like we’re in a good place.”
The Razorbacks now hit a stretch of three matches against lesser known opponents before hosting Tennessee to begin SEC play on Sept. 17. Hale said the level of play should remain the same.
“The standard has to be our own,” he said. “Lamar’s probably gonna win their conference. Eastern Washington won 12 games last year. Sometimes playing Duke and UNC is sexier. There are some really good teams we’ll be playing.”
The Razorbacks will also need to adjust to different start times, which is also by design, Hale said.
“Some people want all the factors to be perfect,” Hale said. “We like when they’re not. It forces us to get mentally tougher and have to fight through some stuff.”
Hale said the team’s overall depth is improving. He singled out Cora Duininck, a senior transfer who earned all-conference honors at Liberty.