The ASU men's soccer club knew the competition was going to be fierce during its season-ending tournament over the weekend. The Sun Devils just didn't expect the weather to be fierce as well.
Rain drenched parts of Austin, Texas, throughout the end of last week, delaying games and making for tougher playing conditions during the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association's annual men's open soccer division championship. But, the Sun Devils refused to let the rain dampen their spirits as they went on to win two of their three games during the tournament.
"Overall, we did well," junior midfielder Daniel Krause said. "We came together and did what we had to do."
The team had been scheduled to play two games on Thursday and one on Friday, but all of Thursday games were rained-out, forcing the team to play three games on Friday. The Friday games were shortened to 25 minutes per half to make up for all of the postponed games.
ASU (7-7-3) lost a sluggish first game, 1-0 to Southern Illinois Friday morning at 11. But, the Devils rebounded to win their final two games against Texas Southern at 4 p.m. and Virginia at 9 p.m. Their final two games ended with an identical score of 2-1.
Sophomore midfielder Shawn Neville said that playing three games in one day was an exhausting experience.
"It was the first time I had ever done that," he said. "It was weird. We only got like a 30-second halftime, and we played 150 minutes of soccer in one day."
ASU allowed Southern Illinois to score on an odd-man rush early in its first game of pool play on Friday. The Devils fought back furiously to try to tie the game, but were unable to get the ball into the net. In fact, the Devils dominated much of that first contest and did practically everything but score, including having a shot deflect off the crossbar.
The second game later that day proved to have a better result for ASU. The Sun Devils finally got on the board for the first time in the tournament in the first half against Texas Southern. Neville was able to punch the ball into the net after the Texas Southern goaltender had difficulty controlling a pass from his own teammate.
Neville said that first goal helped change the team's mentality tremendously.
"When we were scored on early in the first game we panicked," he said. "But scoring in the first half of the second game was a huge relief. It was a huge confidence builder."
Senior defender Bryan Leinwand would later add a goal for ASU, and the defense was strong enough to preserve the first victory of the tournament for the Devils.
Even though the game against Texas Southern was a success, the final game of the tournament for the Devils proved to be their finest moment of the season.
Virginia scored right before the half to take a 1-0 advantage, but the Devils responded with a goal of their own by Krause early in the second. The two sides remained deadlocked until ASU was able to take the lead with another Krause goal with just 30 seconds remaining.
Krause said he was pleased with the team's poise and effort throughout the tournament, but especially in that final game against the Cavaliers.
"It was a real good way to end the season," he said. "No matter if we won or tied the game, I was happy with how we played."
The Sun Devils ended the tournament in a three-way tie with Virginia and Southern Illinois for first place in their pool. The tiebreaker between the teams was point differential, and because ASU had the lowest point differential of the three clubs, it was left out of the quarterfinals.
However, the quarterfinals and the rest of the tournament were never held because of continuing rainfall in Austin.
Reach the reporter at jeremy.a.cluff@asu.edu
