GAME NOTES

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The No. 6 Florida State soccer team (4-2-0) finishes up their three-game home stand on Thursday, September 12 at 7 pm against No. 24 Colorado (6-0-0). The Seminoles then head on the road to take on Villanova (3-2-1) on Sunday, September 15 to cap off non-conference play.

“We have challenged our team in a lot of different ways so far this season and I think we are continuing to learn and continuing to grow and continuing to get better,” said head coach Mark Krikorian. “We are continuing to look and tweak the way we are playing on both the attacking and defending sides of the ball. We are getting some of our injured kids back and healthier, getting them more minutes and hopefully growing our depth. Overall, we have learned that we have a very competitive group and as the season goes on we can be pretty good.”

The Seminoles are coming off a 2-0 weekend that witnessed their first six-goal game since 2015.

Florida State and Colorado have only met once, resulting in an FSU victory. The Seminoles and Buffaloes met in the 2013 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Tallahassee. The Garnet and Gold took it to Colorado, winning 4-0 sending the Seminoles to their ninth straight Elite 8.

Colorado is a perfect 6-0 on the season with four shutout wins and one win against a ranked opponent, 2-1 over No. 24 Texas.

The match-up on Sunday will be the first in soccer between Florida State and Villanova. The Wildcats are 3-2-1 on the season with a total of seven goals and seven assists in six games.

Florida State has scored 14 goals from nine different players in the first six games of the season. Deyna Castellanos and Jaelin Howell lead the team with three goals apiece. Castellanos has 39 career goals, one shy from moving into a tie for third all-time at FSU.

Florida State is 157-13-9 at home since 2005 when Mark Krikorian became head coach at Florida State. The Noles are 89-5-6 in their last 100 matches played at home, dating back to 2011. FSU has 30 wins over ranked opponents over that time.

All eight of Florida State’s newcomers have now earned playing time led by Abbey Newton, Jenna Nighswonger and Heather Payne. Nighswonger and Payne both have one goal and one assist through six games. Newton scored her first goal last Sunday against Samford.

“By in large the first year kids have come in and done a good job,” said Krikorian. “A lot of the kids got an opportunity to play on Sunday for the first time and we saw some pretty good stuff out of those women as well. As the season continues to unfold we are going to try to feature more and more players and get more depth going forward.”

Thursday’s game against Colorado will be broadcast on the ACC Network with links to the broadcast and live stats on the schedule page of Seminoles.com. Admission to all Florida State soccer regular-season games is free.

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