The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2024-25 season and the 2025-26 campaigns still a little ways away.
Which makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing and how they’ve handled the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in and what prospects they have for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it is performing under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before he/she arrived and comparing it to now while also evaluating how that program fits into its new conference.
Next up: Becca Moros’ soccer team.
How it looked before
Moros took over just before the 2021 fall season after longtime head coach Tony Amato left for Florida. Amato didn’t last long in Gainesville for reasons that had nothing to do with soccer, but Moros has stuck at Arizona.
Prior to her arrival, the Wildcats had built a regular postseason challenger under Amato. They didn’t make the truncated NCAA Tournament in the spring of 2021, but they had earned a berth in five of the previous six tournaments. Amato’s teams only missed the postseason three times in eight seasons.
Where things stand now
Moros coached her team to an 11-6-2 overall record and a 6-4-1 league record last season. It was the most wins both overall and in conference play since the last full season under Amato in 2019. The team went 12-7-1 overall and 5-5-1 in the Pac-12 that year.
Despite the win total, the team still didn’t make the postseason. While they started out promising, traveling to North Carolina and playing tough in a 2-0 loss, the Wildcats had some letdowns late in the season. A road loss to a 4-12-1 Houston team and a home shellacking at the hands of Kansas essentially ended their chances at the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats lost their top scorers with the graduation of fifth-year players Nicole Dallin and Gianna Christiansen after last season. They also lost relentless fifth-year midfielder Megan Chelf and dangerous all-around athlete Nyota Katembo, who had played all over the field for Arizona in her three years in Tucson. She is now in the professional ranks in her native Canada.
The team returns promising sophomores Kennedy Fletcher, Narissa Fults, Rose Calkins, and Zoe Mendiola. All got considerable playing time as freshmen. Leadership will come from seniors like midfielder Sami Baytosh, defenders Maia Brown and Ella Hatteberg, and goalkeeper Olivia Ramey.
Sophomore GK Sofia Cortes-Brown is playing for the Canadian national program this summer, preparing to challenge Ramey and possibly earn the starting position in 2026 if not sooner. Her U20 team took the CONCACAF championship and will play in the U20 World Cup.
Arizona assistant coach Nat Gonzalez was leading the Puerto Rican team in Costa Rica. On that team was transfer forward Aurora Gaines, who joined the Wildcats from LSU in March. The forward was a four-star recruit coming out of high school.
Fellow SEC transfer Lily Boydstun also joined Arizona in the offseason. The midfielder suited up for Arkansas in nine matches last year. She was the Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year in 2024. Both she and Gaines are sophomores.
Big 12 vs. Pac-12
The Wildcats ended up being middle-of-the-pack in their first year in the Big 12, finishing 7th of 16 teams. That was the highest of the three Pac-12 teams that joined the league. In the Pac-12, a top-half finish and double-digit wins likely would have meant an NCAA Tournament berth. In the Big 12, it did not.
A big reason for missing the tournament was the comparative weakness of the Big 12 when compared to the Pac-12. While it’s a bigger league, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Moros tried to make up for the loss of matches against powerhouses like Stanford, UCLA, and USC with out-of-conference matches against the Tar Heels and Pepperdine. It just wasn’t enough to make up for the missteps in a weak Big 12. Going out in the opening match of the Big 12 Tournament didn’t help, either.
This year, Moros is trying to make up for the loss of the Pac-12 by going back to the Pac-12. She has scheduled road matches against Stanford and California in 2025. UNC is scheduled to play a return match in Tucson in 2026.
On the home slate, Arizona welcomes UC Irvine, Pepperdine, and GCU in return matches.
One big question
Until it happens under Moros, there is only one question: will Arizona make the postseason?
There is a lot of scoring to replace. Arizona must rise to the occasion in its opportunities and avoid the self-inflicted damage it experienced late last year. The sophomore class, including the two transfers, will have a lot of weight on its shoulders. Having a senior goalkeeper who was a worthy replacement for five-year starter Hope Hisey last season will certainly help.
It will likely come down to how Arizona does in the Big 12. Not missing Texas Tech this year should help the team’s RPI since the Red Raiders have finished near the top of the league for the last several years. The Wildcats will not miss any of the league’s top teams next season.
Instead, the Wildcats miss Houston, which finished next-to-last in the league last season but beat Arizona. They also miss the Kansas schools. Kansas State was last in the league standings, so beating the other Wildcats handily did little good for Arizona. KU likely dealt the death blow to UA’s postseason chances with a 4-0 victory in Tucson that drew the Jayhawks even with the Wildcats’ 6-4-1 conference record.
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics