Heading into their long trip to Virginia, the ASU soccer team was 2-0 and had outscored their opponents 8-0.
But over the holiday weekend ASU lost twice, 3-0 to Virginia and 3-1 to Old Dominion.
The unranked Sun Devils (2-2) were already the major underdogs when they took on No. 4 Virginia (5-0) on the road, and right away ASU looked severely outmatched.
Virginia junior midfielder Julia Roberts jumpstarted her team’s prolific offense by scoring two goals in the first 13 minutes. Those were the first goals allowed by the Sun Devils all season.
On the second goal, ASU sophomore goalie Vittoria Arnold was kicked in the face trying to recover the ball, resulting in an open net for Roberts to shoot in.
“It’s pretty disappointing that the ref didn’t protect her,” ASU coach Kevin Boyd said. “They scored out of the situation. That would have changed things if that ref had been on top of that.”
Arnold left the game after the play due to injury, and junior goalie Alyssa Gillmore filled in for the remainder of the game. Gillmore allowed one goal, but had four saves in 77 minutes of action.
Virginia junior forward Caroline Miller put the game out of reach in the 61st minute with the Cavaliers’ third goal. Virginia senior forward Lauren Alwine assisted on all three of the team’s goals.
ASU was outshot 20-7 in the game and the Cavs had 8-3 advantage on shots on goal.
ASU freshman forward Alexandra Doller was the lone bright spot of the game for the Sun Devils. Doller had five of ASU’s seven shots in her first career start, including all three of their shots on goal.
Old Dominion hands ASU its second loss
The Sun Devils continued their run of poor starts in games when they faced Old Dominion on Sunday. Sophomore defender Amber Cook got the Monarchs on the board with a header goal off of a corner kick in the eighth minute.
In the 31st minute, Doller provided the equalizer and brought the Sun Devils back into the game. ASU sophomore forward Devin Marshall’s shot was initially denied after a collision with the goalie, but the ball got free and Doller scored on the deflection.
Old Dominion responded just a couple minutes later with two devastating goals before the half.
Monarchs senior defender Lisa Bernardini scored five minutes after ASU’s equalizer late in the first half to give the Monarchs a 2-1 lead, and freshman midfield/forward Taylor Smith provided a third goal just a couple minutes later for Old Dominion.
All three Monarch goals came in the first half. ASU out-shot Old Dominion 12 to 10, including a six to one ASU edge in the second half.
“We played well in the second half, we just weren’t capitalizing on our chances,” senior defender Kari Shane said. “We had a few times where we were putting the ball high or wide. The first half was just kind of rocky for us.”
The main difference between the two teams was that junior goalie Brianna Alvarado had seven saves, while Gillmore had only three.
A major concern for ASU over the weekend was the lack of communication between the players.
“We’ve got to find more presence as a team out on the field and it really can’t come from the sidelines, and it’s got to come from the players in the game itself,” Boyd said. “So now we’re talking the mentality as the team and the leadership on the field during the game.”
Shane vows to rebound from these two mishaps and get back on track.
“It’s been a rough weekend for us,” Shane said. “I don’t think we were necessarily on our game this weekend, but we want to come back next weekend and we’re going to be playing with a vengeance.”
Doller agrees that she and her teammates were not in their usual rhythm.
“It was not like our team to act like or play like we did, but we can only come away learning from the weekend,” Doller said.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Janssen@asu.edu
