- Every Southern Utah win through September 6 was a shutout and every loss came against a team from another conference. The Thunderbirds opened Big Sky play at home against Montana on October 1.
- Southern Utah Women's Soccer connect back to Southern Utah University and the wider soccer picture.
- The story is backed by 9 sources and a visible last-verified date.
September 8, 2026
October 10, 2026
5 min / 1,154 words
9 official links
Southern Utah women's soccer was 3-4 on September 6 with two matches left before its return to Big Sky play, and the shape of that record was unusual: every win had been a shutout, and every loss had come against a team from a conference the Thunderbirds are not in.
The Big Sky opener was October 1 at home against Montana, a 1-0 loss. Southern Utah then beat Portland State 1-0 on October 4 for its first Big Sky win since returning to the league and drew 0-0 at Idaho State on October 8, and stood 4-6-2 and 1-1-1 in the conference as of October 10, 2026, per its schedule.
The East Coast trip did what it needed to
Southern Utah opened the season with three matches in six days in South Carolina, and came home with two wins.
The first went badly. The Thunderbirds lost 3-1 at College of Charleston on August 12. Two days later in Orangeburg they beat South Carolina State 1-0, and on August 17 they closed the trip with a second consecutive 1-0 result, this time at The Citadel in Charleston.
Two 1-0 wins on the road, back to back, is a specific kind of result. It says the defence travelled. Southern Utah has kept three clean sheets in seven matches this season, and two of them came in that four-day stretch on the other side of the country.
Then the schedule got harder
The five matches since have been a different test.
Southern Utah lost 3-0 at Utah on August 22, the first of two straight against opponents from power conferences, then lost 1-2 at Sacramento State on August 27. The home opener on September 3 went 0-1 to UC Irvine at Thunderbird Soccer Field — a one-goal defeat in the first match Cedar City had seen all year.
Three days later the Thunderbirds beat Justice College 18-0 at home. It is the outlier on the schedule and the only Southern Utah result this season decided by more than three goals.
That left the Thunderbirds 3-4 overall, 1-1 at home and 2-3 on the road, with a one-match winning streak going into the final stretch of non-conference play.
Two matches before the Big Sky
Southern Utah hosted Cal State Northridge at Thunderbird Soccer Field on Sunday, September 13 at 1 p.m. MT and drew 2-2, then traveled to Boise State on Thursday, September 17 for a 7 p.m. MT kickoff and lost 2-0, per its recaps. Those were the last two fixtures before conference play began.
The Big Sky schedule
Conference play opened at home. Montana won 1-0 in Cedar City on October 1, and Southern Utah beat Portland State 1-0 on October 4, with Ashlyn O'Malley scoring at 52:46 and goalkeeper Tatum Trout making five saves, per Southern Utah's recap. From there the schedule alternates:
- October 8 at Idaho State: a 0-0 draw, Trout's second straight shutout and SUU's fifth of the season, per the recap
- October 11 at Weber State, 1 p.m. MT
- October 15 vs. Northern Arizona, 3 p.m. MT
- October 18 vs. Northern Colorado, 1 p.m. MT
- October 22 at Eastern Washington, 4 p.m. MT
- October 25 at Idaho, 6 p.m. MT
- November 5 vs. Utah Tech
Two of those are in-state, and both are new in this form. Weber State on October 11 and Utah Tech on November 5 are conference fixtures now rather than scheduling choices between Utah programs, because Southern Utah and Utah Tech both joined the Big Sky for 2026-27. The November 5 meeting with Utah Tech closes the regular season in Cedar City.
What the record does and does not tell you
Seven matches is enough to see a pattern in how Southern Utah has won and lost, and not enough to project a conference finish.
The pattern is narrow margins in both directions. Discounting the Justice College result, Southern Utah's six matches against four-year opponents have produced scorelines of 1-3, 1-0, 1-0, 0-3, 1-2 and 0-1. Four of those six were decided by a single goal, and the Thunderbirds won two of the four. The two heavier defeats both came against power-conference opposition, at Utah and at College of Charleston.
The Big Sky slate is a different population of opponents, and Southern Utah had not faced any of them before October 1. The first real measurement arrived that day, a 1-0 loss to Montana.
The conference draw favours Cedar City
Five of Southern Utah's nine Big Sky matches are at Thunderbird Soccer Field: Montana, Portland State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado and Utah Tech. The four road fixtures are Idaho State, Weber State, Eastern Washington and Idaho.
That is a useful split for a team that has played most of its season away from home. Six of Southern Utah's first seven matches were on the road, spanning South Carolina, Salt Lake City and Sacramento before Cedar City saw the Thunderbirds at all on September 3. The schedule inverts from October onward, and it closes at home against Utah Tech on November 5.
The season began earlier than the results suggest. Southern Utah played two preseason exhibitions at Thunderbird Soccer Field, against Air Force on August 5 and Utah State Eastern on August 7, before flying east for the opener.
Key facts:
- Record: Southern Utah was 3-4 through September 6 — 1-1 at home, 2-3 on the road, with no Big Sky matches played
- As of Oct. 10, 2026: 4-6-2 overall and 1-1-1 in the Big Sky, per the schedule; freshman goalkeeper Tatum Trout was Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 6, the program's first since 2018, per Southern Utah's release
- Opening trip: three matches in South Carolina in six days, producing back-to-back 1-0 wins at South Carolina State (August 14) and The Citadel (August 17)
- Clean sheets: three in seven matches
- Before conference play: vs. Cal State Northridge, September 13, 1 p.m. MT; at Boise State, September 17, 7 p.m. MT
- Big Sky opener: vs. Montana, October 1, 4 p.m. MT at Thunderbird Soccer Field — a 1-0 loss
- In-state conference fixtures: at Weber State October 11; vs. Utah Tech November 5, the regular-season finale in Cedar City
*Update, Sept. 26, 2026: Southern Utah drew 2-2 with CSUN at Thunderbird Soccer Field on September 13 and lost 2-0 at Boise State on September 17, finishing nonconference play 3-5-1.*
*Update, Oct. 10, 2026: Southern Utah lost its Big Sky opener 1-0 to Montana on October 1, beat Portland State 1-0 on October 4 on Ashlyn O'Malley's goal for what Southern Utah's recap called its first Big Sky win since returning to the league, and drew 0-0 at Idaho State on October 8, when Rylan Tebbs made her 42nd career appearance to become the most-capped Cedar City native in program history, according to the recap. The Thunderbirds were 4-6-2 and 1-1-1 in the Big Sky as of October 10, with a trip to Weber State on October 11.*
