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Logan • The Utah State women's soccer team returns nine starters this season, but record-setting goalkeeper Jeannie Woller isn't among them.
After a sensational four-year career, she has graduated.
In Woller's place, sophomore Grace McGuire won a fierce battle for the No. 1 job in training camp, beating out senior Natalie Stoven, junior Sara Cobb and two freshmen, Kaitlyn Stratton and Maggie Richey.
McGuire will start Friday night, when the Aggies open a new season at South Dakota State.
"I expect we'll be really solid in goal," said coach Heather Cairns, who starts her 14th season at Utah State.
Besides Woller, the Aggies lost defender Lexie Henrie-Parrish to graduation. She started 65 games during her four-year career.
Still, Cairns is optimistic Utah State can improve on 2015, when the Aggies finished 10-8-2 overall and 5-5-1 in the Mountain West Conference but failed to qualify for their league tournament for the first time in 11 years.
"We just want to bounce back," Cairns said. "… Consistency is probably the biggest thing that we struggled with in conference last season. If we can get a little more consistent in our play, I think the results will take care of themselves."
Utah State's top returnees include senior forward Jessica Brooksby and junior midfielder Wesley Hamblin. Brooksby scored 12 of the Aggies' 28 goals last season. Both players eared all-Mountain West Conference honors.
On the back line, junior Rachelle Warner and sophomore Kelsey Andersen return as the anchors. Warner played all but 27 minutes last season. Andersen made 13 starts.
"Fans can expect an athletic team that's going to cover a lot of ground," Cairns said. "We have great depth. That will allow us to rotate a lot of players and play a high-paced style of soccer.
"Offensively, we want to attack quickly and increase possession. Defensively, we are going to hunt the ball and win it back. If we can't win it back immediately, we're going to keep it organized and make it hard for our opponents to penetrate."
Utah State was picked seventh in the Mountain West's preseason poll by the league's 12 head coaches. Four-time defending champion San Diego State was voted No. 1, just ahead of San Jose State.
Twitter: @sluhm —
USU women's soccer schedule
(All times Mountain)
Aug. 19 at South Dakota State 5 p.m.
Aug. 22 at Eastern Washington 1 p.m.
Aug. 28 Utah 1 p.m.
Sept. 2 at Cal State-Fullerton 8 p.m.
Sept. 4 at UC Santa Barbara noon
Sept. 9 Gonzaga 4 p.m.
Sept. 11 Sam Houston State 11 a.m.
Sept. 17 BYU 4 p.m.
Sept. 23 Colorado State 4 p.m.
Sept. 25 Wyoming 1 p.m.
Sept. 30 at Air Force 6 p.m.
Oct. 2 at Colorado College, noon
Oct. 7 Fresno State 3 p.m.
Oct. 9 San Jose State 1 p.m.
Oct. 14 at New Mexico 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 16 at San Diego State 1 p.m.
Oct. 21 Nevada 3 p.m.
Oct. 23 at UNLV 2 p.m.
Oct. 28 at Boise State 4 p.m.
Nov. 1-5 MWC tournament, San Diego TBA