Utah State’s sports season will officially begin when its soccer team travels to Pullman, Washington for the season opener of the reigning Mountain West champion Aggies. The team is coming off a historic season in which it had a 18-1-5 record, reached No. 7 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, won a second consecutive conference tournament title, and hosted an NCAA Tournament game.
Unsurprisingly, the program that is coming off back-to-back victories in the Mountain West Tournament was selected to win it all this year in the preseason poll. Utah State garnered six of the 13 first-place votes. Behind them are Boise State, which got three first-place votes with Colorado State and San Diego State in third and fourth, respectively, each getting one top vote. New Mexico received two first-place votes but were seventh in the poll.
The 2025 Mountain West Women’s Soccer Preseason Poll
There’s clearly a lot Utah State has to live up to, but it’s a task that Manny Martins, who agreed to a contract extension last summer, is set to tackle. And the fifth-year head coach of the Aggies joined the Full Court Press on 106.9 The FAN last Friday to discuss the team’s offseason and prospects for the upcoming season.
Finding a way to live up to last year’s season will come down to finding replacements for the numerous veteran stars that are no longer with the team. Part of what made the team so successful last year was the number of fifth-year seniors that stuck around for one final run. Alex Day, Bizzy Arevalo, Whitney Lopez, Alysia Butters, Kaitlyn Richins, Addy Weickers and Kylie Olsen were the most notable among that group of players that stuck around for the one last highly successful hurrah in 2024. Building another veteran crew through another recruiting cycle is now the key.
“I like to think of it as we’re starting our second four year cycle,” Martins said. “So last year’s group completed our first four year cycle. And now as we go into this next cycle, from an experienced standpoint, there’s some work to be done. And we can’t manufacture experience. We’re going to have to get on the field, play some games, and learn some lessons along the way. But I look at where we were four years ago in terms of just the depth of the roster and the overall diversity of options and possibilities with the roster. I feel like we’re a couple notches ahead of where we were four years ago.”
Most of the departures were in the midfield and especially defense. The entire back line and the starting goalkeeper, Cora Brendle. Those veterans were stalwarts that made the Aggies an elite defensive team for years and produced back-to-back Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honorees (Kelsey Kaufusi in 2023 and Richins in 2024). Now things will turn to a group made up of transfers, freshmen and up-and-comers.
The most experienced player among the new defenders is Colorado Mesa transfer Carli Conner. She joins the Aggies after spending five seasons in Colorado, leading a defense that averaged just 0.85 goals allowed in her four years as a starter. Along with Conner, several returners will get a chance to play significantly more minutes this year. Solena Sellers, Talia Winder, Isabella Velazco and Kasie Vigil are the more prominent names of those who saw some minutes in preview seasons but now must step up and be the mainstays of the rotation. There are also three freshmen on defense, Summer Sofonia, Bentli Barrera and Capriel Winder who could see notable minutes.
Utah State’s goalkeeping room will feature almost entirely new faces, with two of the three newcomers being transfers. Martins added UC Riverside transfer Allee Grashoff and Pepperdine transfer Taylor Rath. Those two combine for 54 career appearances and 38 starts. They’ve also got returning graduate senior Ava Gotchy and freshman Ivy Nystrom whom Martins said “has a tremendous amount of potential.” Overall, Martins said “we have a really good group” of goalkeepers.
“Right now, I’m projecting that (Grashoff and Rath) are fighting for the number one position,” Martins said. “But collectively, I want to say this is the best group of goalkeeping that we’ve had. The most deep and with diverse qualities that should be able to help us deal with most situations we’re going to face.”
Tackling inexperience on the defensive end will probably be Martins’ toughest task since his offense is nearly identical to last year. The Aggies return four of their top five goal-scorers from an offense that led the Mountain West in goals by a wide margin (62 goals, next closest team had 41) and ranked sixth in the nation in goals per game (2.58).
Senior forward Tess Werts leads the way on offense. In 2024, Werts led the Aggies in both goals (eight) and assists (nine) and a similar output would put her in range of being top five at Utah State in both career goals and assists. Two other key returning starters in the attack are forward Kaylie Chambers (five goals, eight assists last year) and midfielder Summer Diamond who will wear the captain’s armband. A potential breakout goal-scorer to watch out for will be Kate Christian, who was 12th on the team in minutes last year but was second in goals scored (seven) as just a sophomore.
The returning experience the Aggies have at their disposal have led to them being further along than Martins where typically expects his teams to be at this stage.
“I feel like we’re ahead of where we normally would have been,” Martins said. “And I think it’s a byproduct of the work they’ve done over captain’s camp. So it’s exciting.”
Utah State will begin its season on Aug. 14 with a road trip to take on future fellow Pac-12 member Washington State. It’s an opponent the Aggies faced last year at home, and drew 0-0 against, and one that Martins has seen plenty of when he was an assistant coach at Oregon.
“It’s a coach that’s had a lot of success. It’s a program that’s been in the final four in the last 10 years or so,” Martins said. “They have a very clear identity and I expect it to be a tough game. I mean, they were one of the few teams that kept us from scoring last year. And I think they’re going to put up the same type of fight”
The Aggies’ second game of the year, against Pacific, will take place on Aug. 21. It won’t be until Aug. 24 that Utah State will play its first home game against Kansas. Along with being a tough game, it will also be the unveiling of the renovations to Chuck & Gloria Bell Field. The upgrades include a re-done grass surface and lights that will enable the Aggies to play games in the evening. Along with the quality-of-life improvement for the players on an improved playing surface, the ability to play evening games can increase attendance and facilitate hosting the conference championship tournament. Martins said he couldn’t be more excited about the renovations.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Martins said of the upgrades. “It’s been to effort of a lot of people starting with our players that have worked really hard to put us in a position where the investment makes sense. But also obviously friends of the program that made it possible. And you know, just even getting out there and training, you can feel that the surface is different. I know having the ability to play night games, being able to have more people in the community come out. It’s going to be a game changer”
