Alabama’s women’s soccer team has been preparing for their weekend trip to California. During their time in California, the Crimson Tide will face both the University of San Diego and San Diego State. Alabama enters the weekend with a 3-1-1 record, while San Diego boasts a 2-0 record.

Head coach Todd Bramble sees this as an important stretch and is excited for the trip.

“It’s huge,” Bramble said. “San Diego State will be there, too. We’re looking forward to taking our talents to the West Coast.”

This trip’s importance only builds as the Tide looks to get back into the win column after a weekend with mixed results. Alabama started the season 3-0 before a 1-0 loss to then No. 25 Memphis and a 0-0 tie against New Mexico on Sunday. In order to get back in the win column though, junior defender Ashley Willis said she believes the team needs to keep their heads up.

“We need to stay positive,” Willis said. “We’re working the kinks out.”

Alabama’s first game takes place Friday when they face San Diego University. San Diego remains undefeated after beating Missouri and University of Southern California 2-1 and 3-1, respectively.

When it comes to strengths, Willis said it could come down to two things.

“I think our strengths will be speed and weather,” Willis said. “The Southeastern conference is a fast conference and with the cooler weather I believe it will allow us to run longer.”

Willis said the team not only needs to stay healthy, but should also learn from this past weekend and avoid looking at it negatively.

While Willis believes it will come down to speed and defense, Coach Bramble said he believes it will come down to only one thing.

“No matter who we play I think our strength will be our defense,” Bramble said. “We have a lot of experience in our backfield.”

The second match will take place on Sunday, as the Tide take on San Diego State. San Diego State enters the match with a record of 4 wins and 0 losses, including their most recent win against previously No. 4 Portland. Willis believes that if they can come out of this trip with two wins it can have a big impact.

“If we can get 2 wins it won’t just impact us mentally, but help boost our record,” Willis said.

While each game would help the team’s ranking if they win, Coach Bramble said he does not see these games as “must win.”

“It’s way too early,” Bramble said. “There is still a lot of soccer to be played.”

The Tide hope to travel to California and break away from their recent results and pad their win column with quality wins against SDU and SDSU.