The Arizona soccer team faced two familiar opponents this weekend in Utah, both of whom handed the Wildcats a loss last season.

While the Wildcats got revenge against one, they could not improve upon last year with the other.

After dominating Utah (1-3-0) -ÿthe team Arizona dropped last year’s season opener to – by a score of 4-0 Friday night, the Wildcats (2-1-0) failed to find the net Monday in a 1-0 loss to BYU (3-1-0).

“”This was a fairly difficult first road trip,”” said UA head coach Dan Tobias. “”Both teams were tough teams. But I thought overall we did a good job (over the weekend), but we just couldn’t equalize (Monday) and simply ran out of time.””

Through the first half of Monday’s contest, Arizona struggled to get shots off with only three on goal in the opening 45 minutes.

The second half didn’t show much improvement, as the Wildcats managed only three more shots on goal in five attempts.

Meanwhile, the Cougars improved upon their first-period performance of five shots on goal with two more in the second, including what became the game winning goal by Kassidy Christensen in the 77th minute. The goal was Christensen’s first of the year.

“”Unfortunately for us we got a little tight with 12 1/2 minutes to go,”” Tobias said. “”(BYU) did a great job of moving the ball down the line and their players did a good job of getting the ball into the box to Christensen and she just got enough of her head on it and that turned out to be the difference in the game.””

Throughout the second half of action, Arizona’s discipline appeared to diminish as three players received yellow cards.

During the 65th minute, defender Brianna Caceres and midfielder Alex Davis both earned yellow cards while BYU’s Becca Riddle received a red card and was ejected from the game. Tobias said the yellow cards appeared to be from late tackles, but was unsure of the full reason for the Cougars’ red card.

Jacqueline Broussard then received a yellow card in the 82nd minute.

“”I wish I knew what exactly went on (during the play),”” Tobias said. “”I’m still not quite sure what the yellow cards were for, but you know BYU is a tough team so you can always expect a physical game.””

Compared to yesterday, Friday’s contest went much smoother as Arizona appeared nearly flawless.

A mere two minutes into the game, midfielder Karina Camacho chipped the ball to forward Renae Cuellar, who punched it in for the game’s first goal, as well as her first as a Wildcat.

“”Renae is one of our great new forwards and she really helped us out early,”” Tobias said. “”To be up 1-0 that early in the game gave us a pretty good advantage.””

Utah’s defense appeared to settle through the rest of the first half as it held Arizona’s next five shots out of the net.

But the floodgates opened late in the second half as the Wildcats let loose a barrage of shots in the game’s final 10 minutes on Ute goalkeeper Emalee Rogers, who began to struggle.

Midfielders Leila Amini and Camacho, as well as forward London King all recorded goals during the 10-minute stretch, giving Arizona a runaway win in the team’s first contest away from Tucson.

“”We did a good job throughout the game getting to the net,”” Tobias said. “”But being up 1-0 heading into the half was what really helped us in that game.””