Arizona soccer has gotten out of the gates quickly this season, scoring in the first 11 minutes of two matches on the way to a 3-0 record. When the Wildcats take on No. 5 North Carolina on Sunday morning, they’ll need to be ready early in more ways than one.

UA travels across the country to take on the Tar Heels. The game will kick off at noon as far as UNC is concerned, but that’s 9 a.m. back home for the Wildcats. Arizona head coach Becca Moros was thinking about preparing her players for that trip in more ways than one just minutes after defeating NAU last Thursday evening.

“Number one thing for us right now is recovery,” Moros said. “We have a coast-to-coast travel trip, so there’s some dehydration issues, you get stiff on planes, different things like that. So that’s going to be top priority for us in preparing for that game. But you know the calmness at times that comes over us and we can just play the simple pass, play consistently well, I think those are things that are going to serve us really well against UNC, which is going to have a lot of athleticism, powerful players in the 1-v-1s, be very efficient with their passing and getting it in quickly. So there’s good quality there all across their lineup. So I think that calmness and ability to play our game is hopefully going to come through against them, as well.”

Falling into an early hole is not a good strategy when facing what Moros has called “the most iconic program in college soccer.” The Tar Heels finished last season No. 6 in the RPI and are also headed into the match with a 3-0 record.

That’s not to say that there aren’t things for UNC to overcome. The players found out less than a week before their first match that legendary Tar Heels head coach Anson Dorrance was retiring effective immediately. His associate head coach, Damon Nahas, took over as the interim for the season. Moros doesn’t think that will be any sort of stumbling block.

“Damon’s been lockstep with Anson for years,” Moros said. “So I would expect things to be really smooth transition as far as coaching changes go. I think that’s probably about as smooth a transition as you could get. So I’m sure the players are right there behind Damon, and they’ve already been working with Damon. They were partly recruited by Damon, and he’s very embedded there. And I’m sure Anson did that deliberately and has his communication and motivational speeches for the players in that transition…he’s probably right there supporting the team and all that. I know that’s a huge strength from Anson. So I’m sure he wants to set Damon up for success, and he wants to see his legacy continue with Carolina being successful at every stage of the game.”

The Tar Heels have been pushed in all three of their matches. Each win came by one goal. It started with a 2-1 victory at Denver, then a 3-2 win at Colorado. UNC is coming off a 4-3 victory over No. 16 Georgia in its home opener.

Arizona has been more dominant in its early wins. The Wildcats have yet to concede a goal and have outscored their opponents 11-0, but they have only faced one team that finished in the top 100 of last year’s RPI. That was GCU, which ended at No. 80 last season. Arizona got the 1-0 win on the road against the Lopes.

The game itself is as important as the result, at least for Arizona. Gone are the days of playing Stanford, UCLA, and USC on the way to a solid RPI propped up by a strong conference. The Wildcats now play in the Big 12, where more than half the teams finished outside the top 100 last year and two were outside the top 200. Arizona does not get a boost from playing Texas Tech this year, which was one of two Big 12 teams to finish in the top 11 of the RPI.

A good result could help Arizona recover from an RPI hit that may be even worse than expected. Several Big 12 teams have started out shaky in nonconference play.

Only the Wildcats and Oklahoma State are 3-0 at this point, although Cincinnati and TCU are both 2-0. Both the Cowgirls and the Horned Frogs jumped into the rankings this week. The concerns are with the other teams.

Big 12 teams have already played to five losses and eight draws. Some of those disappointing results come against teams like Northern Arizona, Little Rock, Creighton, and Drake. All of those teams were outside the top 100 last season.

If Arizona wants to improve on the No. 69 RPI that kept it out of last year’s tournament, playing against teams like UNC before conference is important. Getting a positive result could set the Wildcats on the path toward something special in their first year in a new league.

A good showing in Chapel Hill could also show the Big 12 coaches that they greatly underestimated Arizona when they voted them in a tie for 10th in the preseason poll. Several teams that were picked above the Wildcats are among those who have struggled in the early going.

The match between the Tar Heels and Wildcats is the first of a home-and-home arrangement. UNC is due to visit Tucson in two years.

The match will air on ACC Network at 9 a.m. MST on Sunday, Aug. 25.

Lead photo by Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Athletics

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Uranium mining in the U.S. is picking up after the nuclear fuel’s price hit a 16-year high earlier this year. But now that a mine near the Grand Canyon is producing ore, Native American tribes, local officials and Arizona’s attorney general are questioning its safety.

Last year, on a remote stretch of northern Arizona forest, President Biden designated the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

“From time immemorial, more than a dozen tribal nations have lived, gathered, prayed on these lands,” Biden said as he addressed an enthusiastic crowd of tribal leaders, members of Congress, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and advocates.

The monument designation permanently banned new uranium mining claims on nearly a million acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park and blocks what could have been hundreds of new operations in an area that is culturally significant to the Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo and others.

“Our nation’s history is etched in our people and in our lands. Today’s action is going to protect and preserve that history,” said Biden, as Red Butte, one of the Havasupai Tribe’s most sacred sites, loomed in the background.

The declaration was also a recognition of a far darker history, the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on and near the Navajo Nation left over from the Cold War era that are blamed for deaths, cancers and other grave health problems in many of the region’s Indigenous communities.

“When it comes to uranium specifically, I think there’s almost a moral obligation to say no and to make that message strong,” says Navajo Nation first lady and former Arizona legislator Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren.

She says radiation exposure killed two of her grandparents, one of whom was a uranium miner. It is an all-too-common story on Navajo and a hardship that’s touched nearly every family there. But one previously established mine that has been on hold for decades and is located within the national monument can legally still operate because of preexisting rights. And it started producing uranium ore earlier this year.

Inside the Pinyon Plain mine near the Grand Canyon in Arizona

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“It’s just you and the miners that you’re working with accomplishing a goal,” says Pinyon Plain Mine Assistant Superintendent Matt Germansen.

He has just stepped off a cage-like elevator after taking the five-minute ride almost 1,500 feet to the bottom of the mineshaft. A ventilation system whirs above a diesel front-loader and a small team of workers including miners, electricians and welders. They have their sights set on digging out a geological formation called a breccia pipe that contains some of the highest-grade uranium ore in the U.S.

“We have basically everything we need to operate down here from heavy equipment to first aid to electrical power systems,” Germansen says as he walks through the tunnels of the subterranean operation.

He and the mine’s owner, Energy Fuels, say the mine is safe and won’t affect the Grand Canyon’s groundwater or environment — something conservationists have challenged for years. The company says Biden’s designation has stymied the area’s potential for significant uranium development.

“To declare a national monument is certainly frustrating because it feels like it was done without the science backing it,” Germansen says.

But that science remains inconclusive. Hydrologists with the U.S. Geological Survey have studied the area for more than a decade and have sampled thousands of water sources throughout the Grand Canyon. They say there is no definitive evidence of water contamination from Pinyon Plain or other uranium mines. But they caution that they do not yet have a complete picture of its complex geology and many uncertainties remain.

Tribes in the region have been steadfast in their opposition and have fought uranium mining near the Grand Canyon for decades. The Havasupai, whose reservation is at the bottom of the canyon, worry that Pinyon Plain could pollute its sole water source. They, along with environmental groups, challenged a 1986 environmental analysis by the U.S. Forest Service that found almost no risk of contamination. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it valid and reaffirmed the company’s right to mine in 2022. Earlier this month, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes questioned the nearly 40-year-old science in the original study and asked the agency, which manages the land where the mine is located, to conduct a new one.

Carbon emissions-free energy

Energy Fuels maintains that Pinyon Plain, Arizona’s only currently operational uranium mine, is a key part of the global transition away from fossil fuels. It’s expected to produce about 2.5 million pounds of processed uranium over its lifespan of three or more years.

“If we’re going to address climate change, nuclear has to be part of that. There’s just no way to get there without nuclear. Uranium powers nuclear,” says Curtis Moore, Energy Fuels’ senior vice president for marketing and corporate development.

While interest in the U.S. for carbon emissions-free nuclear power is ramping up, a significant supply of uranium just became off-limits for geopolitical reasons.

“A big one is Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine,” Moore says.

Earlier this year, Biden signed a law that bans U.S. imports of uranium from Russia. It took effect in August. Previously, the U.S. had imported about $1 billion worth annually.

Last year President Biden created the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. This year he signed a law banning the import of Russian uranium

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Amid these changes in the global market, in late July Energy Fuels sent its first truckloads of ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine to its White Mesa Mill in southern Utah for processing. The route crosses a large part the Navajo Nation, and the unexpected move by the company ignited numerous protests in the region.

“Our people are still dying today. They’re suffering. There’s so much generational trauma that uranium has brought to our people,” says Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.

He spoke to several dozen community members, activists and others in early August in the reservation town of Cameron, which is along the haul route on U.S. Highway 89, just days after the ore shipments passed through. Nygren then led a protest march along the highway, which backed up traffic as leaders sang traditional songs in the Diné language and held a large yellow and red banner calling for the closure of the mine and respect for tribal sovereignty.

The tribe outlawed uranium ore hauling in 2012, and Nygren has vowed to stop any future shipments. Energy Fuels, however, says it’s well within its rights to use state and federal highways through the reservation for its deliveries. And they are adamant that the ore has low levels of radiation and is safe to transport.

But soon after the first truckloads crossed the Navajo Nation, the company put the shipments on hold at the request of Gov. Hobbs, who is mediating talks between the Energy Fuels and tribal officials. There’s no timeline for when hauling may restart, but the pause has done little to quell opposition to Pinyon Plain as activists, tribal members and leaders continue to fight uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

“It’s a humanitarian issue that we face here on Navajo because it’s killed thousands of our people,” Nygren says.

The Arizona Cardinals are a preseason game and Tuesday’s cutdown day away from turning squarely to the regular season.

But before the Cardinals head to Buffalo to take on the Bills, it was only right for my daughter, Brady Drake, to give her expert record prediction for the season ahead.

Unlike last year’s 5-10-2 mark — which wasn’t that far off if we’re being honest — she was much more optimistic this time around, albeit after Week 3.

Similar to her thinking in 2023, she has Arizona losing its first three games (Bills, Los Angeles Rams, Detroit Lions) of the year.

The dark days would soon be over, however.

Just as the going got tough, a win over the Washington Commanders and former Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury ended the skid for the Cardinals.

Clearly the victory provided some added juice — dare we say, “momentum?” — to Arizona’s system, rattling off another 13 wins.

Maybe Drake is already envisioning the added boost rookie wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. will bring to an offense expected to take a jump behind a healthy Kyler Murray.

Maybe she thinks the defense is going to surprise after a poor showing in Year 1 under the new regime.

Whatever the reasoning, Drake is clearly liking the direction this team is heading.

One more time for the folks at home:

Week 1: @ Buffalo Bills (Loss)
Week 2: vs. Los Angeles Rams (Loss)
Week 3: vs. Detroit Lions (Loss)
Week 4: vs. Washington Commanders (Win)
Week 5: @ San Francisco 49ers (Win)
Week 6: @ Green Bay Packers (Win)
Week 7: vs. Los Angeles Chargers (Win)
Week 8: @ Miami Dolphins (Win)
Week 9: vs. Chicago Bears (Win)
Week 10: vs. New York Jets (Win)
Week 11: Bye
Week 12: @ Seattle Seahawks (Win)
Week 13: @ Minnesota Vikings (Win)
Week 14: vs. Seattle Seahawks (Win)
Week 15: vs. New England Patriots (Win)
Week 16: @ Carolina Panthers (Win)
Week 17: @ Los Angeles Rams (Win)

Final record: 14-3

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