The Arizona soccer team (3-3-0) looks to capture its first win at home this weekend as it hosts the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort Cats Classic at Mulcahy Stadium. The Wildcats will face Florida International (3-2-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Loyola Marymount (6-2-1) at 7:00 p.m. Sunday.
“We are going up against two strong teams,” head coach Lisa Oyen said. “We haven’t seen FIU play since they are in another region, but we are always looking forward to playing out of region teams, and then LMU has always had a really strong program.”
As far as preparing for the matches, Arizona changed up training this week in order to overcome the struggles the team faced in Tempe last weekend. According to Oyen, the main focus is to maintain a solid thought process throughout the game by taking control of the game in five-minute increments.
The Lions come into Sunday’s match after a shutout win against Idaho State 2-0.
Arizona has met LMU a total of six times, winning only two of the matches in back-to-back seasons in 1994 and 1995.
In their last meeting on September 24, 2010, in Los Angeles, the Lions shutout the Wildcats 2-0. The teams had fourteen shots each for the game and Arizona led with 7-5 shots on goal, however, most of the Wildcats’ shots were from long range.
After playing an intense ten minutes, Arizona “collectively pulled back” allowing LMU to gain a 2-0 lead going into half time, Oyen said.
Cats Classic History
The Wildcats originally hosted this tournament under the name Four Points Sheraton Cats Classic from 2002-2006, winning three championship titles. In 2007 and 2008, the tournament was substituted for regular season games instead. However, in 2009, Arizona brought the tournament back under a new name — the Marriot University Park Tournament.
Since 2010, the Cats Classic has been presented by the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.
Arizona’s competition in the past included Pacific, Texas Tech, UCF, Ohio State, Brown, Rutgers, Hawaii, Utah, New Mexico, UC-Irvine, Fairleigh Dickson, Iowa State, Kent State, Drake and Cal Poly.
Iman Hamdan can be reached via Twitter @imanhamdanDW
