After 110 minutes of play, the Arizona women’s soccer team finished with a score of 0-0 against Loyola Marymount on Sunday, its first tie of the season.
“It was not our best game of the season,” head coach Lisa Oyen said. “LMU did a good job bouncing back from their game on Friday and we did the exact opposite. When we don’t play well we get away from doing the really simple things.”
In a scoreless first half, LMU outshot the Wildcats (4-3-1) 8-6 with three on goal to Arizona’s one shot on goal. This is the fourth time this season an opponent has outshot the Wildcats in the first half.
This match also marks the fourth time Arizona took six shots or less in the first half for the season.
Junior forward/midfielder Jazmin Ponce and sophomore forward Emily Lai both came close to putting points on the board.
In the 21 minutes into the first half, Ponce launched the ball just right of the goal missing it by inches. Fifteen minutes later Lai took aim and shot the ball, hitting the top post. Groans of disappointment sounded throughout the stadium as Arizona failed to place the ball in the back of the net.
“They figured out the way I play so they backed up when I had the ball,” Ponce said. “I tried to turn and hit it every time, but it wasn’t going the way I wanted it. It was just frustrating we couldn’t get the ball into the net.”
The momentum changed in the first 15 minutes of the second half as the Lions came out aggressive offensively.
As the Wildcats regained control, senior midfielder Ariel Boulicault took a wide shot to the right which resulted in a corner kick opportunity for Arizona.
Lai launched the corner kick just inside the goalie box, and after four headers the ball settled at Ponce’s feet. She shot, but it was blocked.
Still scoreless in regulation, the Wildcats headed into overtime for the first time this season, but even the additional 20 minutes didn’t give Arizona enough time to pull off the win.
“The way that LMU defended is not the way we had other teams defend us,” Oyen said. “I think we had a hard time solving that.”
