In its final weekend of the season, the ASU soccer team dropped a pair of matches in the Bay Area but still managed to garner a berth into the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history.
"I can't tell you how happy I am for this team because they worked so hard," ASU head coach Ray Leone said. "I was heartbroken for them Sunday because they left it all out there…it's the joy of playing another day and you just see what happens."
On Sunday, ASU (11-6-2, 4-5 Pac-10) got behind Cal early when freshman forward Tracy Hamm scored off a broken play in the 25th minute. Sun Devil sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Fitzgerald got a hand on Hamm's 20-yard shot, but could not slow it down enough to prevent it from entering the goal.
The Golden Bears (11-7-1, 4-5) kept the lead late into the second half until ASU sophomore defender Stephanie Peel knocked in the equalizer off a rebound. Both junior defender Amy Lepeilbet and freshman forward Kelly Bond had shots blocked by the Cal defense before Peel's goal from 10-yards out evened the score in the 87th minute.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, Cal senior midfielder Brittany Kirk crumbled ASU's hopes of overtime when she blasted a 22-yard shot into the upper 90 with just 14 seconds remaining in regulation. The 2-1 win put the Golden Bears in a tie for sixth place in the Pac-10 with ASU.
"I don't think I'd ever experienced losing a game in the final 20 seconds, and this year it happened twice," Leone said. "One of the things we learned is you have to finish every single second of the game."
Friday the Sun Devils were given a taste of what Stanford has done to most of their opponents this year, as the Cardinal (18-1-0, 8-0-0) shut out ASU 2-0.
In the first half freshman midfielder Hayley Hunt headed a corner kick in during the 36th minute to give Stanford a 1-0 lead. At the 61:31 mark senior midfielder Callie Withers gave the Cardinal more than enough when she fired a ball from eight yards out off of Fitzgerald's hands and in. Stanford dominated the game in the shot category, firing 19 on net to only five for ASU.
"Stanford was fantastic," Leone said. "We played against the number one team in the nation and did pretty good…they were the champions of the conference and showed it."
Despite the two losses ASU will play on, traveling to Santa Clara, Calif. next weekend for its first round match against Pac-10 foe Washington State. ASU will be looking to avenge a 1-0 loss to the Cougars (11-6-2, 5-2-2) earlier this season in Tempe.
"It doesn't matter what happened in the past," Leone said. "They beat us fair and square. We just need to muster up a much better performance if we want to win."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
