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Weber State player Lily Blum (5) tries to outpace Snow College defender Brindee Jones (26) during an exhibition match Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Ogden.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

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Weber State women's soccer head coach Kyle Christensen, center, gestures as he speaks to players during a practice on July 29, 2025, in Ogden.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

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Weber State players Brinley Meyerhoffer (21) and Sayler Schlosser (23) slap hands during an exhibition match against Snow College on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Ogden.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

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OGDEN — The early August evening, cooled by cloud cover, gave Weber State women’s soccer its first step in what the Wildcats hope is something greater.

WSU posted only three wins in 35 matches over the last two seasons, a run that includes a 2-9-5 mark in the Big Sky Conference. Thursday, the Wildcats stretched out a 5-0 victory over visiting Snow College in an exhibition, the unofficial start to the 2025 season.

Senior midfielder Brynlee Meyerhoffer has been part of plenty of wins at Weber State, but it’s been a while.

“We obviously want to win games,” Meyerhoffer said about what players discuss with each other entering the season. “We want to prove that we are better than what we were last year. Losing games, that’s not us, so we want to prove that we have something. It’s comeback season.”

Those two dry years put some distance between Meyerhoffer’s first two seasons at Weber State.

In 2021, WSU opened with a win at Kansas State, went 6-3 in the Big Sky and took a rough, 1-0 loss to Montana in the Big Sky tournament final. In 2022, Weber rallied into the tournament field with three straight wins to end the Big Sky schedule at 4-4, then took regular-season champion Northern Arizona to penalty kicks in the tournament semifinals.

The main, obvious difference in 2025 is at the top. Craig Sanders retired after six seasons in charge of the program and Weber State has turned to Kyle Christensen for more. The Layton native was a 10-year assistant at Utah Valley, played club soccer at WSU and also scholarship soccer at Denver.

After Thursday’s exhibition, Meyerhoffer didn’t hesitate when identifying the biggest difference between this season and last with Christensen at the helm.

“Definitely the intensity,” the Fremont High alum said. “We kind of got lax in the past years. We’re fitter, we’re pressuring higher, we are passing better, attacking harder — just all the little things that are going to make a big difference for us as a team.”

Pressuring high and quickly winning the ball back was on Christensen’s mind Thursday.

Presley Ray knocked in goal from Sayler Schlosser in the ninth minute but otherwise the first half saw less intensity than Christensen wanted. Harley Hutchins poked in a goal one second before the first half expired for a 2-0 lead, but WSU eventually put 16 shots on goal while keeping Snow College from even one.

“The goal of the game was to reinforce and work on some of the characteristics of our team in terms of high pressing … and just get our identity as a team worked on,” Christensen said. “The biggest takeaway that I’m most happy with is the energy and the commitment to win the ball back. We pressed high when we lost the ball, we counterpressed, so we were able to keep control of the game.

“I thought the effort there is exactly what I wanted, especially in the second half … preseasons are short, and we haven’t had much time so we’ve still got a bunch to work on.”

WSU got a good glimpse of senior forward/midfielder and Utah State transfer Tenzi Knowles, who may go a long way to replacing the team’s 2024 points leader Ali Swensen after she transferred to Utah. Knowles banged a long goal into the top-left corner from outside the box on the right side in the 55th minute and scored on a Harlee Thomas assist in the 69th minute.

“Tenzi is a super creative player,” Christensen said. “I told her, listen, I’m going to give you a lot of freedom and I want you to express yourself, go with your instincts, use your creativity. And I think we saw glimpes of it tonight.

In between, Meyerhoffer won a rebound and found the net in the 56th minute.

The senior thinks the past two seasons have refined the team’s group of returners.

“Losing like that definitely takes a toll on your mind but I think that’s why it’s so important that we come together as a group … and put in the effort every day,” she said. “Bonding and becoming so close as a team, becoming best friends, is ultimately what’s going to help us.”

The team only had about one week of practice before the exhibition but Christensen said his group of seniors (Meyerhoffer, Schlosser, Knowles, Grace Kirby and Sammie Sofonia) have been the difference so far.

“It’s never easy having to change but they have been great,” Christensen said. “They bought in, we’ve had plenty of conversations and they’re excited about what we’re doing.

“I think we’re in a good spot, and I couldn’t be happier with the upperclassmen and how they’ve adapted to everything.”

Weber State starts the 2025 regular season at Oregon on Thursday, Aug. 14, and at Oregon State on Sunday, Aug. 17. WSU opens its home slate the following week, hosting Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday, Aug. 21, and North Dakota State on Sunday, Aug. 24.

NORTHERN UTAH FLAIR

Weber State again has plenty of players local to the surrounding area this season. Meyerhoffer and Kirby are alums of Fremont High. Davis High has junior Emery Jacobs and freshmen Cadence Packer, Simone Packer and Brooklyn Phongsavath.

Juniors Ella Sanders (Northridge) and Ashlyn Price (Bonneville) are back, while Weber High has Hannah Kallias and Kaitlin Dean on the squad.

Knowles (Ridgeline), Delaney Gibbons (Sky View), Isabella Sackett (Farmington), Oakley Anderson (Woods Cross), Mina Nydegger (Woods Cross) and McKenzie Taylor (Woods Cross) also represent from north of Salt Lake City.

Though recorded stats were few for Snow College, the Badgers brought plenty of locals north to play in front of hometown fans and family. Brianna Kalista (Ogden), Mirabel Shellabarger (Fremont), Madi Thurgood (Box Elder) and Quincie Knudson (Layton) all got on the pitch Thursday.