Sedona’s first professional sports team will measure itself against the best right away, as the three-time women’s soccer league champion Los Angeles Blues will come to town to play the Strikers Football Club on Friday, May 16.

Head coach Manny Arias has a roster of 27 high school, college and professional soccer players assembled and ready to prove themselves as the eighth and newest members of the W-League’s Western Conference in the United Soccer Leagues.

They will need to do so May 16 at 7 p.m. at Sedona Red Rock High School against the Blues Soccer Club, which merged with the Los Angeles Strikers Football Club — the next-best Western Conference team last season — after defeating the Laval Comets of Quebec, Canada, to win last year’s W-League championship. The Blues attack with former Team USA forward Katie Stengel and two of last year’s winners of the National Collegiate Athletic Association College Cup — defender Abby Dahlkemper and midfielder Caprice Dydasco of the University of California at Los Angeles.

“I know they won the championship, I know they have three or four really good players,” Arias said, “but I believe that with the talent we have, we have a very good product.”

Arias believes he has plenty of firepower to match his inaugural opponent with a roster loaded with former Mexican National Team players, including goalkeepers Etzel Gonzales and Stefanie Varela, along with former Pima Community College forward Carolina Hinds and, late of Mesa Community College, former Sedona Red Rock High School standout Cassie Sanchez.

For the full story, please see the Friday, May 16, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.