Arizona Soccer Opens Season on High Note

Arizona soccer opened up its season this past week with a pair of wins over UNLV and UC Irvine.

The Wildcats opened their season last Thursday with a 5-0 win over UNLV. Arizona came out on fire with all five goals scored in the opening half of the game. It matched the Wildcats season-high from last year when they scored five goals against three times against Pacific, Northern Arizona and Kansas State.

It was a pair of players scoring their first goals as an Arizona Wildcat that got the scoring going as sophomore transfers Aurora Gaines and Lily Boydstun scored early with two goals from Gaines and the third goal being scored by Boydstun. UA took a 4-0 lead on a goal from sophomore Narissa Fults before the fifth goal was scored an an own goal by UNLV.

Boydsun also added one assist to go along with her two goals, while senior Sami Baytosh led the team with two assists. Sophomore Rose Calkins also added one assist. UA outshot UNLV 15-6 and held possession of the ball for 60 percent of the game. Senior goalkeeper Olivia Ramey completed the shutout with the Runnin' Rebels putting just two shots on net the whole night.

The game included delays for both lightning as well as the stadium lights going out, both happening in the second half at a time where Arizona didn't need to do much already leading 5-0 after one half.

The Wildcats second game of the season on Sunday was much more competitive in a 1-0 win over UC Irvine. It was a header from sophomore Kennedy Fletcher on a crosser from Boydstun in the final minutes that won the game for Arizona. It had been 0-0 for the first 88 minutes of the game.

Kennedy with the header for the WIN‼️ pic.twitter.com/pZzbYVJL4p
— Arizona Soccer (@ArizonaSoccer) August 17, 2025

As part of another shutout performance, Ramey needed just one save in the game. The Wildcats outshot UC Irvine 10-3 in the game and also had eight corner kicks to them not having a single corner.

The Wildcats are officially 2-0 on the season with a pair of clean sheets. Last year, Arizona won its first three games before taking a loss against No. 5 North Carolina. The Wildcats will head on the road for the first time this season to take on New Mexico State on Thursday for their only game this week.

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