The Arizona soccer team snapped its four-game losing streak Thursday night with a 2-0 win over Washington State, but couldn’t complete the sweep of the Washington schools, falling to Washington 2-1 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle.
The loss drops the Wildcats’ record to 6-6-1 for the season and 1-4 in the Pac-12 Conference, while the Huskies snapped a six-game losing streak.
Washington, now 6-7-1 overall and 1-4 in the Pac-12 Conference, wasted no time grabbing an early lead against the visiting Wildcats.
In the ninth minute of the game, Kimberly Keever was knocked down in Arizona’s box, setting up a penalty kick for the Huskies.
UW forward Shannon Simon stepped forward and easily converted as UA goalkeeper Lainey Burdett, who saved a penalty kick last Sunday against Utah, dove to the wrong side, leaving the net wide open for Simon.
The Wildcats outshot the Huskies 8-5 in the first half, but Simon’s PK would be the only goal in the period.
“UW started the match better than us and the early penalty kick meant that we were chasing the game all afternoon,” Arizona head coach Tony Amato told Arizona Athletics after the game.
UW’s lead would be erased early in the second half, as Arizona tallied an equalizer courtesy of Gabi Stoian.
Stoian made her way into UW’s box with ease and snuck a low rolling shot between the goalkeeper and the near post.
Here was @gabi_stoian‘s equalizer in the 59th minute. pic.twitter.com/pc1iQOUJhA
— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapireUA) October 9, 2016
It was Stoian’s fourth goal of the season, but unfortunately for Arizona, the tie only lasted for a few minutes.
In the 63rd minute, UW’s Pascale Dumesnil crossed a ball into the box, where it was deflected by an Arizona defender. The ball skipped in front of the net to Becca Schoales, who was able to knock it past Burdett to give Washington a 2-1 lead for good.
Here is how @UW_WSoccer re-took a 2-1 lead in the 62nd minute pic.twitter.com/K6fqo64bAC
— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapireUA) October 9, 2016
“Pascale just worked really hard to get the ball in to me on line and put it across,” Schoales told Washington Athletics. “It made it really easy to put it in.”
Burdett suffered a knee injury in the 52nd minute, but shortly returned to the game.
Washington finished with a 14-12 shot differential as Arizona only mustered four shots in the second half.
“We did respond well in the second half, but conceding so quickly after we scored put us right back in a hole,” Amato said.
The Wildcats return to action next Thursday when they’ll host No. 10 UCLA. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the match will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
Arizona hasn’t defeated UCLA since 2004.
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