Freshman Alyssa Gillmore knew her time would come.
She knew that if she kept with it, all of her hard work would pay off.
What she didn’t know is that she would be called upon to start as the Sun Devil goalkeeper in the first week of the Pac-10 schedule against two of its toughest competitors.
“It was a little nerve-racking,” she said. “I was a little nervous, but I definitely felt the support of my team. They encouraged me during practices; it was nice to have the confidence from them, and that helped me to get the confidence for myself.”
In her first two starts, Gillmore, a Colorado native, saw the likes of two of the top teams in the nation.
No. 15 USC and No. 3 UCLA posed notable competition and gave Gillmore a tough test as a true freshman.
“She did very well,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “She was solid Friday night, made one little error, and then Sunday she was absolutely great in the first half and she could have been the most valuable player if she would have carried that on … then she made a very costly error in the second half.
“Unfortunately with a goalkeeper, when you make an error it’s a goal. She made an error and it gave [the Bruins] their first goal. As a whole, I thought she did a solid job, but she can’t give up errors like that.”
With the support of her team, Gillmore and the rest of the Sun Devils are eager to face another set of Pac-10 opponents and erase the memories of two losses last weekend.
This weekend they will face Washington State and Washington in two redemption games that are sure to bring back a few memories.
“We match up against the teams very well, so I think it’s going to be very important that we get on the board first,” junior Jill Shoquist said. “They’re supposed to be great teams and we’re a great team too, so face-to-face it’s going to be a great match.”
Last year against WSU, the Sun Devils put up 11 shots in the first half, and Shoquist ended the game with three shots of her own.
Against UW, junior forward Karin Volpe scored her ninth goal of the season, but as a whole, the team was outshot by the Huskies, 26-8.
The two overtime loses in Washington last year not only ended the season for ASU, but also dashed their postseason goals.
“There’s definitely a chip on our shoulder about it,” Shoquist said. “It’s always good to play teams that we didn’t get to play at home here. We’re doing very well, we’re undefeated at home, so hopefully we can carry on that streak because we’re trying to get after them.”
As the Sun Devils work toward closing the gap on the Pac-10 competition, they are also hoping to work on their mental game.
“I think in many ways we righted our mentality,” Boyd said. “We were good to go on Sunday. The team gave everything they had, we just made some costly errors, and that’s something that we’re going to do from time to time and we’ve got to clean that up. We were ready and we played both teams very hard, so I think we’re ready for this weekend as well.”
Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu
