ASU's 5-0 start to the season ended Sunday night against Oklahoma after the Sooners scored the game-deciding goal in the 83rd minute.
The story in the first half for the Sun Devils was their inability to get clean shots on goal against Oklahoma’s stout defense.
Oklahoma got their scoring started in the 20th minute, after a foul in the box by senior midfielder Christina Edwards led to a Sooners penalty kick goal.
ASU's only goal of the night tied the game at one in the 77th minute. Sophomore forward Marleen Schimmer sent an exceptional cross to fellow sophomore forward Nicole Douglas, who headed the ball into the net for her sixth goal of the season.
The 1-1 tie didn’t last long. Just over six minutes after Douglas's equalizer, Oklahoma answered with a goal of their own when OU's Ivanna Rivas was able to rebound a missed shot.
That goal by Rivas turned out to be the deciding goal, as the Sooners controlled much of the possession until the clock hit zero.
“Momentum can be everything in close games like this,” ASU redshirt senior Kylie Miniefield said. "We had such little time left that I think people were definitely a little frustrated and let down.”
ASU’s playing style is very possession-oriented, and Oklahoma was able to counter that effectively in the first half, as it stymied ASU's scoring efforts by sitting back and packing the penalty box.
“We didn’t do enough when we had the possession,” said ASU head coach Graham Winkworth. "We did not move the ball quick enough in the first half. I thought we improved with that in the second half, but we lost that game from the first half performance.”
Winkworth and his team have three more non-conference games prior to the Pac-12 part of the season getting underway.
Next week, ASU will make its lone cross-country trip of the season when it travels to Florida to face UCF on Thursday, September 12th at 3:00 P.M. MST.
Reach the reporter at ltochter@asu.edu and follow @Leo_Toch on Twitter.
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