Arizona soccer prepares to honor four seniors as Oregon State and Oregon come to town

It will be decision time soon for three Arizona soccer seniors, but one has no more decisions to make. It will be Iliana Hocking’s last game in Mulcahy Soccer Stadium on Sunday. For Hope Hisey, Madison Goerlinger, and Mariah Dunn, there are still doors open due to the extra year the NCAA granted to athletes due to the pandemic.

“Still thinking about it,” Goerlinger said at the beginning of October. “I graduate in December, so it’s a decision I think that’ll be made at that time. But as of right now, I’m loving this season and trying to enjoy this whether it be my last or not.”

There are reasons for them to come back. For Hisey, another year would likely mean tying or breaking Lainey Burdett’s career shutouts record. Hisey currently trails Burdett’s mark by six. She has had at least six shutouts in three of her four years at Arizona, including this season.

Goerlinger started playing center back this season and has enjoyed the learning and leadership parts of that. Another year gives her more time to hone those skills.

For all of them, it would be an opportunity to continue growing with a team that seems to have broken through. After two years of missing the postseason, they are in the conversation this year. Another year might mean an even better chance of being in the NCAA Tournament and advancing.

There are also reasons that they might not want to return.

“I think they’re weighing a couple different things,” head coach Becca Moros said. “Obviously, they’ve been thinking about sticking around and I know that they’ve enjoyed this year. So I think that that pulls them a little more, but they do have other things that they had lined up and things that they’re thinking about doing, so they really do have to make some choices about whether they want to put those things off. And then a couple of them are actually graduating early, so they had actually prepared to be able to kind of move on in the spring. They have a big decision because it’s a whole other year or not for them.”

Their teammates are hoping to send them out on a high note as they welcome Oregon State and Oregon to town.

“I’m looking forward to the fans coming out,” said junior forward Jordan Hall. “Looking forward to celebrating the seniors on Sunday. They’ve done so much for the program. I think some of them are coming back. Some of them aren’t. Of course, we want to win in general, always, but just really playing for them because for some of them this is going to be their last time playing on the Arizona soccer field, and just making sure it’s special for them.”

Moros is not particularly looking forward to this rite of passage.

“I’m gonna always hate this part of the job, every year,” Moros said. “I hated it last year. I hate it this year. I’m going to be sad to see them go, but I have enjoyed coaching them and I know they’re gonna do a tremendous job. I hope they always come back and feel like this is home for them and that we’re their family. So I hope I’ll still get to see them every year. I know the team will miss them. They’ve been tremendous leaders and personalities off the field and they’re just a really interesting combination of discipline, focus, passion, sort of like that loyalty piece that’s really important in a team. And then a lot of fun-loving personalities, create a lot of laughter in the locker room and levity in situations that might otherwise kind of get a group down. So, they are a good group. Maybe we’ll hang on to one or two of them, but obviously, Iliana is leaving us no matter what.”

Oregon State Beavers (4-9-3, 0-7-1 Pac-12) @ Arizona Wildcats (6-6-3, 3-4-1 Pac-12)

When: Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. MST

Where: Mulcahy Soccer Stadium in Tucson, Ariz.

TV and streaming: Pac-12 Insider

Stats: Arizona Live Stats

Rankings: Neither team is ranked in the United Soccer Coaches poll. Oregon State is No. 118 in RPI. Arizona is No. 39 in RPI.

Standings: Arizona is tied for 5th in the Pac-12 with Washington and Arizona State. Each team has 10 points. Oregon State is 12th with one point.

Moros says: “Oregon State is scary because they’re like we were last year at the end of the year where you know, you’re like, okay, we can’t do all the things we wanted to do, but we can set a tone for the next year. We can mess up some people's seasons. We can play with no pressure and sort of a weight lifted and free to just kind of explore ourselves. So I think that’s a scary game for sure. And they fight hard. They’re physical, they’re gonna battle.”

Oregon Ducks (4-6-6, 2-4-2 Pac-12) @ Arizona Wildcats (6-6-3, 3-4-1 Pac-12)

When: Sunday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. MST

Where: Mulcahy Soccer Stadium in Tucson, Ariz.

Streaming: Arizona Live Stream 2

Stats: Arizona Live Stats

Rankings: Neither team is ranked in the United Soccer Coaches poll. Oregon is No. 43 in RPI. Arizona is No. 39 in RPI.

Standings: Arizona is tied for 5th in the Pac-12 with Washington and Arizona State. Each team has 10 points. Oregon is tied with Colorado and Utah for 11th with eight points.

Moros says: “We struggled a little bit with Oregon last year. I think they spread the game out well. They’re also well organized and I think that they’re a very solid team similar to us. So I think that that’s also going to be a really competitive game and a different matchup than I think we’ve probably faced in the last few games.”

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