The Arizona soccer team responded the way head coach Lisa Oyen wanted after dropping its first two Pacific 10 Conference games, but it wasn’t enough as the Wildcats lost their third straight game in a 2-1 loss to ASU.
“”It was a game that we thought could have gone either way, we were really competitive,”” Oyen said. “”Unfortunately we’ve been giving up goals on set pieces. The positive coming out of that is that is something we can correct.””
The first goal of the game came from an ASU corner kick in the 29th minute, when ASU midfielder Alexandra Elston scored on a header to give the Sun Devils the early 1-0 lead.
Arizona was outshot 7-2 by the Sun Devils in the first half but still managed to have to go into the half down just 1-0.
With a team that consists of 12 freshmen, Oyen admitted that in the first half it took some of young players a little time to adjust to the intense environment that the rival game presented.
“”I think they had to adjust to the atmosphere but also it’s just them adjusting to Pac-10 play,”” Oyen said. “”I think they’re starting to recognize the intensity they’re going to see and the type of players they will go against. Sometimes it does take them a little bit of the first half to get their feet underneath themselves,”” Oyen added.
In the second half the Wildcats came out with a better rhythm and scored their first goal on a header by Arizona defender Kristyn Magyar. It was Magyar’s first career goal and appeared to give the Wildcats some momentum in the second half.
In the 75th minute ASU struck again with another goal from Elston, with a strike from outside the box that ended up being the game winning goal, giving them eight wins total.
The Wildcats weren’t able to generate any goals in the last 15 minutes which was something that coach Oyen looks to fix as the season proceeds.
“”We need to work on small technical things in order to win tight games,”” she said. “”I don’t think we’re far off than where we need to be but we have to pay attention to the finer details.””
Arizona (4-8-2, 0-4-0) is now on a three game losing streak to start its Pac-10 schedule and will have two tough opponents in California and Stanford coming to Tucson this week. Stanford, who lost in last year’s national championship game after going undefeated the entire season, may be the Wildcats’ toughest opponent of the season.
“”Stanford obviously had a very good year last season, it’s going to be a very tough game,”” Oyen said. “”But this will be a great motivator for our players because you want to play well against the best in the nation.””
