Check out more photos from the Sun Devil Classic.
Inconsistency.
That’s the term surrounding the ASU soccer team after splitting two games on their home field, evening their record to 3-3.
The Sun Devils knocked off Oklahoma (3-4) 3-0 in the Sun Devil Desert Classic, but fell 1-0 to Missouri (7-1) on Sunday.
Freshman forward Alexandra Doller got ASU off to a quick start on the weekend in the fifth minute against OU on Friday.
Sophomore midfielder Blair Alderson played in Doller, allowing her to be all alone inside with a one-on-one opportunity with Oklahoma’s goalie. Doller drew the goalie out of position and knocked in her fourth goal of the season.
There were not too many more opportunities for either team in the first half. ASU and Oklahoma combined for just seven shots.
After the break, the Sun Devils opened their offense up, and made the Sooners pay.
In the 58th minute, Alderson scored her first goal of her career. Alderson shot the ball and it deflected off of an Oklahoma defender. The Sooners’ goalie was diving the other way, and the ball went in uncontested.
Four minutes later, junior forward Sierra Cook scored her third goal of the season. She caught the goalie off her line and easily drove it in from 30 yards out. Cook and Doller are the only Sun Devils with multiple goals this season.
Junior goalie Alyssa Gillmore posted a shutout and had six saves.
Mizzou’s strikes back
On Sunday, ASU lost a tightly-contested game to Missouri in the last minutes of play.
Gillmore had bailed out ASU a few times in the second half with four saves, at times diving and leaping to stop shots.
“We just try to limit the amount of times I actually touch the ball,” Gillmore said. “The less I have to do in the game, the better.”
But with 2:25 to go in regulation, Missouri forward Abi Raymer cashed in their best scoring chance of the day when she drilled the ball uncontested in the far upper corner.
“We were lucky to have gone to the 88th minute still tied,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “They had two great chances they should have stuck away, that’s the reality of it.
ASU had one more chance to tie the game. Alderson was inside the penalty box with the ball with a minute to go, when she was knocked over. The play appeared to draw enough contact for a foul — which would have warned the Sun Devils a penalty kick, but no call was made.
“We had a PK that should have been called, and it didn’t but you can’t rely on a ref to win or tie your game for you,” Boyd said. “We have to create it.”
Junior midfielder Taylor McCarter shrugged off the referee’s error.
“That’s the ref’s prerogative,” Taylor McCarter said. “He’s going to make the calls. We should have had more opportunities anyways earlier in the game.”
Creating scoring chances was a problem for the Sun Devils in the second half of last season as well, and although ASU’s only played four games, the inconsistency is something that has to change, Boyd said.
“We didn’t come out at halftime,” Boyd said. “We don’t maintain the quality of our game from one game to the next or one half to the next. That’s the problem.”
Despite the loss to Missouri, Gillmore remains positive about her team’s performance over the weekend.
“We’ve seen multiple ways on how our team can play,” Gillmore said. “We’ve had good games, we’ve had bad games, and we’ve had mediocre games. Obviously we want two wins, but at least we got a split out the weekend, so not a complete waste of a weekend.”
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