Redshirt senior forward Courtney Tinnin (7) celebrates her goal with her teammates during the Sun Devils’ 1-0 win over Washington State on Friday. (Photo courtesy of Steve Rodriguez)Sometimes, all that’s necessary is a little luck.
That’s what redshirt senior forward Courtney Tinnin had Friday afternoon, as her goal in the 13th minute was enough to propel the ASU soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Washington State.
Tinnin scored her goal straight off of a corner kick, bending the ball into the far post for the only goal of the match.
Tinnin’s second goal of the season came as a surprise, even to the redshirt senior.
“I meant to bend it in (the) back post, and it just went in the back of the net,” Tinnin said.
The win was the Sun Devils’ (6-7-1, 2-3-0 Pac-12) eighth in nine meetings at Washington State (7-4-1, 1-2-1 Pac-12) and coach Kevin Boyd was pleased with the effort of his team.
“We just battled the whole time, and that’s really what it came down to,” Boyd said. “It was physical and hotly contested, and we just kept our focus and did what we needed to do.”
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Chandler Morris also recorded seven saves for the Sun Devils, who were outshot 20-14 by the Cougars.
Washington shuts out ASU
Sunday afternoon’s match against Washington didn’t produce the same result for the Sun Devils, as they fell 2-0 to the Huskies (9-3-2, 2-2-1 Pac-12).
The Sun Devils fell behind in the 34th minute on Washington junior midfielder Lindsay Elston’s goal on a penalty kick, giving her team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Boyd didn’t agree with the penalty call.
“The referee called a penalty kick on the only holding call he played the whole entire game,” Boyd said. “It was a phantom call and it’s very frustrating.”
Regardless of the referee’s decision, Boyd was frustrated with his team’s first half play.
“I thought we had a poor first half,” Boyd said. “We didn’t come out playing our way. I (thought) our energy and focus were too low.”
The Sun Devils came out with more intensity in the second half, outshooting the Huskies 7-4. ASU dominated most of the play for the remainder of the game, but it couldn’t find the back of the net.
“In the second half, we dominated and were coming at them,” Boyd said. “There just wasn’t much space though.”
The Sun Devils looked poised to score with 10 minutes to go, but gave up a demoralizing goal in the 82nd minute to Washington freshman forward Falon Miller.
Morris came to defend the ball, but made a bad touch and gave it away to Miller, who dribbled around Morris to score her third goal of the season.
“The second goal did us in,” Boyd said. “It was a horrendous error in our goalkeeping position. It killed everything. When we were down 1-0, it was a battle and we were going to fight that until the last second, but to give up that goal with only eight minutes to go, it was a bad error.”
Even though the Sun Devils came out of the weekend with a win, Boyd still wasn’t satisfied.
“I think we could have come out of this with a sweep,” Boyd said. “We have to have better play as a team.”
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
