The Wildcats soccer team will return to Tucson trying to correct the same issues that plagued them when they left.
The Wildcats dropped both of their road matches this weekend, losing 4-1 to Washington and 1-0 against Washington State to end their mild two-game winning streak.
Arizona struggled to play its best soccer from start to finish, which is a hurdle that head coach Lisa Oyen has been trying to get her team to jump over from the beginning of the season.
“”Unfortunately we came out in both games and played one half instead of a full 90 minutes,”” Oyen said. “”Playing a complete game is something we’ve tried to work on all season, and that was the biggest problem this weekend.
“”We learned it the hard way, everyone in the Pac-10 is going to be good and we have to fight for everything we can get during the game,”” Oyen added.
The Wildcats (4-7-2, 0-2 Pacific 10 Conference) opened up the Pac-10 season on Friday night in Seattle, and despite losing by three goals, Arizona flashed its potential in the first 45 minutes of play.
Thanks to a goal by freshman Jazmin Ponce, her third on the year, Arizona entered halftime with a 1-0 lead over the Huskies (9-3-1, 2-0), but couldn’t hold on after UW responded with four second-half goals.
A tale of two halves was the same story for Arizona on Sunday against Washington State (6-7, 1-1 Pac-10).
The Wildcats sputtered on offense in the first half — WSU outshot UA 13-3 in the first half and 7-6 in the second — and weren’t clicking until the second half when it ended up being too little too late.
Telling the Wildcats to play a complete game is something that can only go so far and can end up sounding like a broken record, which is why Oyen explained that actions would ultimately speak louder than words.
“”It’s one of those things where it’s harder to teach that aspect of collectively competing with high energy the whole game. You can tell them all you want, but the players actually going out there and showing it on the field is going to get us the results we want,”” Oyen said.
A silver lining for Arizona was the continued development of skilled freshman Ana Montoya, who led the Wildcats in shot attempts over the weekend.
As far as tangible adjustments to be made on the field, Oyen wants to see a stronger attacking presence up front to keep pressure on opponents’ defenses, and hoped to see a progression from the offense.
Arizona faced a similar situation earlier in the year when it dropped its first two matches of the season.
The next weekend, the Wildcats earned a pair of positive results, and since then have shown the attitude to fight back from a pair of losses, and the resolve to not let it affect their next game.
“”We’ll learn from these ones. They’re not happy with it right now and they’re going to do everything they can to make sure it doesn’t happen in our next match,”” Oyen said.
“”They don’t like losing in this manner, and they’re going to do anything they can do get this taste out of their mouths.””
