Consistent with the theme all season, the ASU women’s soccer team played a solid game over the weekend, but played a poor one as well.
On Friday they lost 5-0 to Texas Tech (5-3), a season-high in goals allowed, but the Sun Devils (4-4) bounced back on Sunday by knocking off Pacific (5-4) 1-0.
“At the very least we needed a split,” ASU coach Kevin Boyd said. “We wanted two wins, but after the debacle from Friday night, I’m quite happy with the win today.”
Freshman forward Alexandra Doller feels she and her team are getting back on-track.
“We’re improving; I think we’re getting our groove back,” Doller said. “We just need to keep working together and putting the effort in.”
Late goal rescues ASU’s offense
ASU had gone nearly 300 minutes without scoring a goal — a span stretching into four games. But in the 86th minute against Pacific, the Sun Devils ended their scoring drought.
On a throw in, junior forward Alyssa Freeman passed the ball to freshman forward Sarah Van Horn. Van Horn headed the ball over towards Doller, and Doller volleyed the ball into the corner of the net.
The goal snapped a 293-minute scoreless skid by the team. The goal was her team-leading fifth of the season.
Pacific’s best opportunity to score a goal came with 15 minutes to go. Pacific took a shot that clanked off the crossbar, and then recovered the missed shot. The second attempt on the play was pushed wide right.
In the first half of play neither team scored, it was the third straight game ASU played that featured a 0-0 score heading into the break.
Pacific out-shot ASU 14-8 for the game, including 9-2 in the second half. The Sun Devils, however, owned the edge where it counted the most — on the scoreboard.
“I’m real proud with the team of what they accomplished today, especially considering we have five players that ought to be on the field right now that aren’t there,” Boyd said.
ASU run over by Texas Tech
For one half of soccer, ASU and Texas Tech were evenly matched. Neither had scored a goal nor took too many shots.
But in the second half of play, the wheels came off the Sun Devils.
“Everything came together for them at the right time and everything fell apart for us at the wrong time,” Boyd said. “It was 0-0 at the half, they got a goal, and they got a little taste of it (scoring) … Every thing that seemed to hit went in. We made mistakes and they absolutely punished us in the mistakes we made.”
Just a minute and a half into the second half, Texas Tech took the lead on ASU. Crafty passing inside the penalty box led to an uncontested shot by Texas Tech forward Madison Terry. Senior midfielder Taylor Lytle provided the assist.
“They got the one and I think we just got down on ourselves, and they just kept coming after us,” Doller said. “It was just a disaster on our side.”
Fifteen minutes later, Texas Tech struck again. ASU goalie Alyssa Gillmore came out of her box to try and recover the ball, but Red Raider sophomore forward Jessica Fuston tapped the ball over her head.
Later in the period, Terry scored her second goal of the game on a defensive breakdown, giving Texas Tech their third of the game. The Red Raiders caught ASU out of position on a breakaway. Lytle passed the ball all the way across the field to Terry with no defenders near her. Terry then converted a one-on-one scoring opportunity with Gillmore.
The Red Raiders would score two more goals, but by that time the game had been virtually decided since Boyd replaced all his starters that were still in the game.
Texas Tech scored on five of their 13 shots, while ASU came up short on all 10 of their attempts.
The five goals allowed by ASU were a season-high. The last time ASU gave up five goals was in 2010 — in the same tournament they played in over the weekend. Texas Tech came into play having scored eight goals in seven games.
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
