In its final road dual of the season, the ASU wrestling team lost 21-15 to the No. 25 Stanford Cardinal in a match of runs Saturday.
After falling behind 10-0 through the first three bouts, the middle of the Sun Devils' lineup battled back to take the lead. However, three straight losses to end the match dropped ASU to 4-9 on the season.
The combination of graduate student Christian Pagdilao, redshirt juniors Josh Shields and Zahid Valencia and redshirt senior Jacen Petersen brought the Sun Devils back and built up a five-point lead.
At 157 pounds, Pagdilao defeated Dominick Mandarino in overtime before bonus point victories courtesy of Shields and Valencia, who have been ASU's most consistent performers this season. Petersen then won a tightly contested bout, 5-2, against Stanford's Austin Flores at 184 pounds.
Despite a 15-10 lead late, the Sun Devils were unable to close out the Cardinal. A Stanford technical fall victory at 197 knotted up the score with ASU before close victories at the heavyweight and 125 pounds matches sealed Stanford's win.
The Sun Devils will return to Wells Fargo Arena for the first time in a month when they host No. 5 Missouri on Friday Feb. 8 at 7:00 p.m. MST. It will be the first of three straight home duals to close out the regular season before ASU hosts the Pac-12 Championships in Tempe on Saturday March 9.
Reach the reporter at kmgianco@asu.edu and follow @Kaleb_Mart on Twitter.
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