Winning is a mentality.

It’s a goal and the bar that most teams set for themselves at the start of every game. It’s what they work toward, and the fate of their year rides on how many wins they can obtain in a given season.

For the ASU women’s soccer team, developing that mentality has been a seemingly easy transition, and the results that have ensued suggest that this team is finally finding itself.

The Sun Devils came out of a weekend in the Midwest boasting a 2-1 win against Creighton on Friday night and a 1-1 double-overtime tie against Nebraska on Sunday.

The results improved the Sun Devils’ record to 5-1-2 and extended their unbeaten streak to five games (3-0-2).

“We are becoming very, very difficult to beat,” coach Kevin Boyd said. “We don’t like to lose, that’s showing up — it’s absolutely obvious at this point.”

The desire to win and the determination the Sun Devils have brought to the field in their most recent games, showcase a team that has been able to build upon its strengths and learn how to improve from its weaknesses.

Friday night’s matchup brought points from a new source, as ASU sophomore defender Katie Shepard capitalized on two corner kicks after the Sun Devils fell behind 1-0 in the eighth minute. The goals were not only her first two of the season but of her ASU career.

“Shepard scored a goal off a corner kick, and then four minutes after that, we scored a second goal, and that was Shepard again from another corner kick,” Boyd said. “So we had someone else step up, but the whole team responded to being down 1-0.”

The win improved the Sun Devils’ unbeaten streak to four games, and the victory on the road was motivation in itself, but Sunday’s competition did not get any easier.

In the four games leading up to their match-up against ASU, the Huskers had scored a total of 29 goals, defeating South Dakota 9-0 just two days earlier.

But the controlled chaos the small field encompassed, and the direct style of play that Nebraska brought on Sunday, gave the Sun Devils a chance to raise the bar of their play.

“We played a very good game at their place,” Boyd said. “We matched up with their style very well and negated a lot of what they were going to do. We gave up a goal with 19 seconds left in the first half, which we were really unhappy about, but then the second half we battled back.”

The tying goal came in the form of a corner kick by ASU freshman midfielder Taylor McCarter.

Her first career goal was enough to keep the Sun Devils in the running for a chance to win on Sunday, and after two overtimes the game ended in a tie.

“Looking at four starts to a game, I thought we won three of the four starts,” Boyd said. “There was one time they got at us in the beginning.

It took us a while to get a piece of the ball, but I thought we started quite well and I thought we played well at times [on Sunday].

“Nebraska is good, but I thought we outplayed them, and to do that at their place was quite a statement.”

The team will return to action Friday when it hosts Pepperdine University at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.

Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.