The ASU women’s soccer team didn’t need nine goals to win both games of the Sun Devil Desert Classic.
The No. 25 Sun Devils (5-0-1) scored them anyway with a 4-2 win over Tennessee (2-4-0) on Friday and a 5-0 shutout of Nebraska (5-2-0) on Sunday.
The passing between the ASU midfielders and forwards set the tempo for both wins.
“They did it as well as we could have asked them to,” ASU coach Kevin Boyd said. “We keep showing we’re a very hungry team going to goal, and we’re pretty dangerous going to goal.”
Senior forward Karin Volpe said passing has been a recent focus in practice.
“We’ve been working on that a lot, and it’s what we needed to do to beat them,” Volpe said.
Volpe had four of ASU goals herself, including a hat trick against UN, which brings her season total to seven.
“I’ve had a few two-goal games, but this is my first hat trick, so that’s pretty exciting,” Volpe said. “It’s good to get the weight off my shoulders a little bit.”
The game against UT on Friday began poorly for ASU when a defensive mistake led to a UT goal in the 24th minute.
The Sun Devils would stay behind until the second half, when senior midfielder Alexandra Elston gained control of a ball in the UT box and slotted it past the goalkeeper to tie the game at 1-1 in the 70th minute.
State Press Television ASU vs. Tennessee highlights By Fahim Rasul
The goal sparked a key momentum shift for the Sun Devils, and freshman defender Jasmine Roth drilled a shot into the right side of goal off a corner kick just a minute later.
Redshirt sophomore forward Sierra Cook added a third goal for ASU after driving into the UT box and sending a low shot past senior goalkeeper Molly Baird.
“Those five minutes we call ‘the big five’, right after you score a goal, anything can happen,” Elston said. “As soon as we put one in it broke loose, and we had three more to come.”
Volpe scored ASU’s fourth goal in the 84th minute, after dribbling all the way from the halfway line and taking a shot from just inside the box that beat Baird to the right side.
UT would get a consolation goal a minute later, however, when junior forward Emily Dowd hit a curling shot into the top left of the ASU goal, giving sophomore goalkeeper Alyssa Gillmore no chance at a save.
Against UN, the Sun Devils struck first when Elston threaded a pass to a running Volpe that the forward had no problem slotting past the goalkeeper, senior Tara Macdonald.
A few defensive mistakes would let the Huskers come close to scoring, but Elston would be the next to score when she put in a goal off of an ASU corner kick in the 26th minute.
Just before halftime, redshirt freshman forward Miah Mollay would give the Sun Devils a 3-0 lead after poking in a rebound that got away from Macdonald.
Volpe would finish the scoring with two goals in the second half in the 65th and 69th minutes to complete her hat trick. The shutout was the second of the year for Gillmore.
“It’s definitely a big confidence boost, especially with how young our defense is,” Gillmore said of the shutout. “It helps us to see we can compete with these teams."
Boyd said the Sun Devil defense will be the biggest concern going forward.
“In all truth, we gave them some very good chances,” Boyd said. “I’m thrilled with the win and thrilled with the weekend, but there were some pieces where I wasn’t happy with them.”
The Sun Devils travel to Tucson next weekend for the Wildcat Classic, where they will face Ohio State on Friday and Central Florida on Sunday.
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
