Washington State closes out August at home Thursday night, hosting UC Irvine at Lower Soccer Field in Pullman with a 6 p.m. kickoff on the Pac-12 YouTube channel. The Cougars are also rolling out a “Fill the Hill” push, with fans encouraged to show up and grab a limited edition Cougar soccer scarf.
The matchup brings the Anteaters to Pullman for the eighth meeting between the programs and the third time they’ve played there. WSU owns a 4-2-1 edge in the series and is 1-0-1 against UCI at home, with an overtime win in 1992 and a draw in 2024.
The teams are meeting for a third straight season. Last year, the Cougars fell in Irvine and saw a five-game unbeaten run against the Anteaters come to an end.
Keara Fitzgerald, who is currently out injured, is the only returning Cougar who appeared in that match.
Washington State enters the week coming off its first road result of the season and its first shutout, a 0-0 draw at North Dakota State on Sunday. The Cougars kept the Bison off the board for a third consecutive match and did it in Fargo for the first time ever. Sidney Venier picked up her first clean sheet in goal.
UC Irvine brings back three All-Big West honorees for 2026: junior forward Clara Samson, junior defender Hailey Clingan, and Fiona Shin, who made the All-Freshman Team a year ago. Those returners accounted for four goals and 17 points from a team that finished with 24 goals and 70 points last season.
The Anteaters’ 32-player roster has combined for 21 points in Anteater colors, with Chifumi Sasaki leading the way at six points. Fifth-year captain Savanna Arruda is the only goalkeeper on the roster with college experience.
After Thursday’s match, Washington State heads to Hawai’i to open September at the OUTRIGGER No Ka Oi multi-team event on the Manoa campus. The Cougars face Utah Valley on Thursday, September 3 at 4 p.m.
PT (1 p.m. HT), then play Hawai’i on Sunday, September 6 at 7 p.m.
PT (4 p.m. HT).
That match will stream on MW+.
Chris Citowicki was hired as the eighth head coach in program history on December 12, 2025, after eight seasons leading Montana. During his time with the Griz, he guided the program to nine Big Sky championships, including three straight regular-season titles. He was the 2023 Big Sky Coach of the Year and finished with a 79-39-32 record and four NCAA postseason appearances.
This year’s Cougars are a heavily reshaped group. WSU brought in 23 new players after the coaching change, including 13 transfers and 10 true freshmen, while retaining eight returnees.
Five of those returnees have field experience and three are redshirts. So far this season, five freshmen have made their college debuts and 17 players have appeared for WSU for the first time.
In the opener against Idaho, 17 Cougars made their WSU debuts, with nine in the starting lineup. Five freshmen played in their first college match.
The captain’s group is made up of seniors Riley Carolan, Ashlyn Dvorak, Keara Fitzgerald and Makena Smith.
There’s also a family connection in the roster this season. Sophomore Aaya McLyn switched to No. 20, becoming the second McLyn to wear it after her sister Aaqila McLyn wore it for five seasons at WSU, including the run to the College Cup semifinals in 2019.
In goal, Sidney Venier has stepped into the starting role with Ashlyn Dvorak out because of a cracked rib. Venier made four saves in the win over South Florida and allowed only a penalty kick goal to earn her first collegiate win. She also played both road matches last weekend and posted her first career shutout in the scoreless draw at North Dakota State on Sunday, August 23 in Fargo, N.D.
True freshman Delaney Hawkins made the most of her first start, scoring her first college goal in the win over USF. She also drew the challenge that led to Washington State’s first-half penalty and early lead.
Hawkins is from Scottsdale, Arizona, and is a legacy Coug; her father, Adam Hawkins, was a WSU football captain and teammate of NFL legend Steve Gleason. Delaney is Gleason’s god-daughter.
Keara Fitzgerald is also back with the Cougars after missing last season with a knee injury suffered against North Dakota State on September 18. Her best stretch included a career-high 11 saves in a shutout at California on September 4, the most by a Cougar goalkeeper in five seasons.
That outing earned her WCC Defensive Player of the Week honors, her second career conference weekly award. Fitzgerald also had an assist in the draw with No.
13 Georgia on August 31, becoming the first WSU goalkeeper to record an assist since Nadia Cooper did it against Colorado in Boulder in 2021. She has 296 career saves in 58 matches and more than 5,000 minutes played, and she is expected back near the end of nonconference play.
Redshirt junior Meg Devall also made an immediate impact after waiting through the 2025 season. She earned a starting role on the back line in 2026, started both matches opening weekend, and scored her first career goal in the win over USF. Her goal came after she collected a loose clearance and sent a curling left-footed shot into the upper left corner from the top of the box, putting WSU ahead 3-1 less than six minutes after the Cougars had regained the lead.
Riley Carolan and Delaney Hawkins give the Cougars a pair of second-generation ties to the program, both following in their fathers’ footsteps as Washington State football players. Brett Carolan played tight end at WSU with Drew Bledsoe before a three-year NFL career. Adam Hawkins played running back for the Cougars and served as a team captain, and Delaney is the god-daughter of Gleason.
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