Coming off of a hard fought win versus Weber State on Aug. 1, the ASU women's soccer team built upon its perfect season as its traveled to Tucson and defeated UC Irvine 3-1 on Friday.
Pre-game temperatures hovered around the low 100’s with players and spectators alike feeling the effects. In addition, both players and coaches knew that the upcoming games would present a new level of difficulty in their matchups, which showed quickly.
From the early stages of the game, ASU was in a dog fight as UC Irvine struck first with a goal in the 12th minute. While it was well known that the competition would be turning up in the coming weeks, it was a shock to many that the Sun Devils were trailing to the 1-3 Anteaters.
But the Sun Devils did not waver and held their composure. Shortly after, they flipped the switch and evened the score at 1-1 on a goal by sophomore midfielder Eva Van Duersen in the 23rd minute. They took the lead on another goal seven minutes later from midfielder Marleen Schimmer.
As the half ended with the score at 2-1, ASU left the field confident but focused, looking to maintain the lead in the second half of play.
When halftime came to a close, temperatures began to lower significantly and the Sun Devils came back onto the field with a new mindset, physicality. The second half showed a play style of nitty-gritty competition from both teams with neither side giving in. It appeared that it would be a stalemate for the entire second half with multiple shots on goal from each team to no avail.
Eventually, in the 87th minute, ASU pulled away with a last minute goal by forward Nicole Douglas, solidifying the win.
With this win in the books, the Sun Devils improve to 5-0 on the season and take on Oklahoma on Sunday.
Head coach Graham Winkworth said the team "won ugly" and he was "disappointed with the team's performance."
The players also had a similar opinion. Douglas, who closed out the game for the Devils in the final minutes, shared the same mindset as her coach.
“Obviously we all know this wasn’t our best performance, but sometimes you have that and you’ve just gotta graft out a result,” Douglas said.
The Sun Devils are off to their best start since the 2000 season.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the score was 5-0, which is ASU's current record. The score was 3-1.
Reach the reporter at pseelams@asu.edu and follow @Hakeem_Prawhat on Twitter.
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