The ASU soccer team opened its seventh season in impressive fashion last weekend with a win and a hard-fought tie against a ranked opponent.
The No. 22 Sun Devils ventured to Albuquerque on Sunday afternoon, where they took care of New Mexico, 2-1. Freshman midfielder Brittany Cooper and junior defender Temryss Lane both had first-half goals in the win.
ASU marked a 1-1 tie Friday night against 25th-ranked Pepperdine in its home opener at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium in 100-degree heat. ASU freshman forward Elizabeth Bogus kicked off the scoring with a breakaway goal in the 42nd minute.
Bogus corralled a pass from sophomore midfielder Kathleen Dely that threaded through the Pepperdine defense and hit her just outside the 18-yard box. She then outran her defender and deposited the ball into the lower right-hand corner of the net with her right foot.
"It was a perfect ball right to my feet, and there was an open side on the goal, so I just put it there," Bogus said.
"Bogey," as her teammates call her, finished with seven of ASU's 10 shots.
"Liz was a little buzzer all around the field," ASU head coach Ray Leone said. "She's relentless, so she's going to create a lot of chances. She laid it all out there."
Pepperdine retaliated in the 73rd minute to even up the contest when sophomore forward Jenna Ainsworth netted her team's first goal of the season on a pass from freshman forward Jenna Fodor.
Both teams played a pair of scoreless overtime periods, but the pace from regulation continued throughout. The Sun Devils (1-0-1) got their best scoring opportunity in the second overtime frame when Bogus missed high and wide from about 20 yards deep. Bogus battled to gain a foot of separation from the defense, but her attempt sailed over the goal as the crowd of 467 gasped.
Leone was pleased with his team's performance, despite the frustration of giving up the game-tying goal late in the second half.
"We're a young team, and we made some mistakes," he said. "I'm very proud of the kids and what kind of effort they gave me."
The Waves controlled most of the play in the first half at the Sun Devil end. ASU sophomore goaltender Kelly Fitzgerald tallied five saves on 10 shots. The only chink in her armor came on the second-half goal, but her stellar play kept Pepperdine out of the net on several occasions.
"That was certainly her best game here as a Sun Devil," Leone said.
Fitzgerald gave more of the credit to the play of the defense in front of her.
"Our defense did a pretty good job of keeping us in there," she said. "It took us awhile to get into the game because we were really excited to play, but once the game slowed down, if we did have any mistakes, the team as a whole recovered."
The Sun Devils were out-shot 17 to 10 and had five fewer corner kicks than Pepperdine in a game Leone called a "track meet" because of its frantic up-and-down play.
"We just didn't have enough of the play to get enough chances," he said. "They controlled the majority, which is something we're going to have to work on."
ASU will get a chance to do just that this weekend when traveling to Colorado Springs to compete in the Colorado College Tournament. Other teams in the field include Denver and Southern Methodist.
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
