With temperatures reaching 106 degrees at kickoff in Tempe, ASU (3-0) maintained its perfect start to the season with a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over Weber State (0-3).
Coming off a 7-1 victory over Tennessee Tech on Friday night, it would have been easy to expect more of the same for ASU facing the winless Wildcats.
However, despite an astounding 26 shots and eight on goal in regulation, the Sun Devils were unable to find the back of the net. Weber State only generated two shots through the first 90 minutes.
Less than two minutes into overtime, ASU finally broke through. Freshman defender Lieske Carleer fed junior forward Olive Jones with a wonderful pass that Jones shot past the Weber State goalkeeper to give the Sun Devils the victory.
“It was a wonderful ball through and a wonderful finish as well,” ASU head coach Graham Winkworth said. “It was going to take something special like that to take down the resilient defending that Weber State did.”
After the goal, Jones remained on the ground hobbled as her teammates celebrated the victory next to her. It’s unclear what injury Jones suffered, but according to Winkworth, she was in good spirits before she was helped off the field.
With high temperatures in Tempe Sunday afternoon, Winkworth was forced to alter his typical substitution pattern, going deeper into his bench than he normally would.
“We used a lot. In the first half, we don’t normally make as many changes as that,” Winkworth said. “Players are cramping, players are tired. They played two days ago, it’s 112 degrees, it’s not really soccer conditions.”
After three convincing victories to start the season, ASU got its first real test of the season against the Wildcats. With the schedule heating up moving forward, it will be key for the Sun Devils to execute down the stretch as they did Sunday.
“I think it’s good to play in something like this, so we don’t (get) comfortable or complacent,” senior midfielder Kylie Miniefield said. “This was a good change-up to get everybody prepared for the conference.”
The Sun Devils have five more non-conference games before entering Pac-12 play.
Next up, ASU will travel down south to Tucson for a matchup with UC Irvine on Thursday, Sept. 6 at 4:00 p.m.
Clarification: A previous version of this story called the soccer team the women’s soccer team. It has been updated to reflect the change.
Reach the reporter at ltochter@asu.edu and follow @Leo_Toch on Twitter.
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