​The Arizona Wildcats soccer team gets the 2026 season underway when official practice starts on Wednesday. Unlike years past, that means almost a full month of practices before the team has to step on the field for a match that counts.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn years past, NCAA soccer didn’t start practice until the end of July. Last year, the opening date was July 29, a full two weeks later than this season. Arizona had an exhibition against NAU on Aug. 5, then it was on the field for the season opener on Thursday, Aug. 14.The NCAA finally came to the realization that this was not a workable or fair schedule. The Wildcats will still have their exhibition on Wednesday, Aug. 5 and their first match on Aug. 12, but that will come after significantly more preparation.The extra practice will be helpful for a team that has a lot of new faces both on the field and on the sidelines this season. The Wildcats carry 25 players, just three short of the 28-player roster limit set by the House settlement. Nine of those are either freshmen or transfers. They also welcome two new coaches.The Wildcats lost five players to transfer after a 7-11-1 season in 2025. While the number isn’t huge for a sport that can carry 28 players, four of the five were either regular starters or played significant minutes for head coach Becca Moros and her squad. Spring was the time to rebound and put things back together.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“The spring was really good for us,” Moros said. “I think the team is, it’s just, it’s good people, and they’re very competitive, and they’re focused on what’s important and building for the future. So, I think from that standpoint, the fall was a bit of an anomaly for us, and frustrating, for sure. It was challenging for the players, challenging for us coaches, but I think they handled it really well. Some of the movement afterwards was just, it was expected, given the kind of experience we had, and some of the reasons for those experiences. So, I think the team is in a better place because of that, and…we’ve also brought in some really talented players to kind of rebalance the roster and make sure we have competition in positions, and have the athleticism we need, have the soccer people we need.”Arizona returns an experienced back line, although they will have a new goalkeeper for the first time in two years. Sofia Cortes-Browne may have the inside track on the job since she has been with the program for two years, but she will be pushed by transfers Laurynn Ziller and Elesha Magley. Magley joined the team for the spring practice season.“When you put our stats from last season into the algorithms…our defense performed very well at the top of the conference, even, and most of our games that we lost, we lost by one goal,” Moros said. “So, most of our defensive unit is returning.”The returning experience comes in the form of defenders like Trinity Dorsey, Zoe Mendiola, Marissa