Last Thursday the Sun Devils opened up Pac-12 conference play against a hungry UCLA team looking for the win. In a tough fought battle, the Devils fell to the Bruins in a 2-0 shut-out leaving them devastated and fighting to regroup and prepare for another tough match against Utah.
The Utes came in off a winning streak and they weren’t ready to give that up. At the start of the game, the Sun Devils took control quickly and held possession a lot longer than the Utes were hoping.
For the Utes, Freshman defender Tavia Leachmen and Junior defender Janie Kearl easily began to tire out the ASU forwards and capitalizing on their mistakes with quick counter attacks, leaving the Devils left chasing after them.
Explosive runs down the right wing of the Utes defense began wearing out the defensive line being held by senior defender Mckenzie Grossman. Though she gave a spectacular performance in trying to hold her back line together, her line was beginning to get tired and with fatigue comes mistakes.
As the clock ran down in the first half, the foul rate started to creep up for both teams. In the 44th minute of the game, Junior defender Taylor Coon was issued a yellow card and gave up a free kick to the Utes in the Devils’ territory.
With Sophomore midfielder Paola Van der Veen on the kick, she got it into the box to the head of the red shirt Senior midfielder Katie Rogers finding the back of the net to put the Utes up just before the half. In the last few minutes before the end of the half, the Devils appeared flustered from the goal and struggled to maintain possession to finish out the half.
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Coming into the second half of the game, the Utes held the momentum and rode with it. With explosive forwards coming at the Devils’ defensive line the Utes worked to tire them out again, but junior midfielder Keeley Gormley held strong in the holding-midfielder position helping to counter oncoming pressure.
It isn’t until the 81st minute that the Devils’ finally get on the board. With a flick over the top from Freshman forward Christina Edwards to Jazmarie Mader who got a lucky rebound from the goalkeeper, taking a quick left-footed shot to sink it back into the net tying the game up 1-1.
The game finished out after two over-time periods in a 1-1 tie, with apparent fatigue in the Devils’ lineup.
Head coach Kevin Boyd reflected on the game saying the team was effected “too much” by not having Aly Moon in the lineup.
“We have too much talent for what’s coming out…we’re all wound up doing weird things…stuff that just turns the ball over,” Boyd said. “Had nothing to do with conditioning, just the moments that we played…they’ve got to calm down and play the game we need to play.”
With an almost game winning shot in double over-time, senior forward Larisa Staub gave insight on what her team needs to do in order to start winning games in conference play, “It all just comes down to working hard, winning one v ones, and getting shots on frame.”
The Sun Devils will have a short time to recover and regroup to prepare for their game Sunday against Colorado. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium and will be live on Pac-12 Arizona.