PULLMAN, Wash. – The Sun Devil soccer team once again proved its mettle and the outstanding character that has come to define its cast of student-athletes in coming through with a 2-0 win at Washington State on Thursday night.
A pair of Arizona natives, fifth-year senior Olivia Nguyen (sixth game-winning goal of her career) and New Mexico State transfer Hannah Leitner (first goal as a Sun Devil) provided all the scoring in Thursday’s game while freshman goalkeeper Pauline Nelles, who made a career-high nine saves in last week’s scoreless tie vs. Utah, added seven more saves vs. Washington State to post her second consecutive shutout.
Defensive standout and team assists leader Lucy Johnson, who missed the last three games due to injury, made an immediate impact in her return in posting her eighth assist of the season. Fifth-year senior Eva van Deursen, who has been limited in recent games, came one step closer to the program’s all-time career assists record by notching the 24th of her career and is now one assist away from tying Sun Devil Hall of Famer Stacey Tullock at the top of the list.
“I think this was a massive win for us,” ASU head coach Graham Winkworth said. “I believe Washington State will end up being an NCAA Tournament team this season with the quality and athleticism they have and they are in the Top 50 in the (NCAA) RPI.
“We picked up some injuries of late and the team was galvanized. It wasn’t just about 11 players. It was a huge squad effort tonight and I want to praise all the players who have been working hard in training every single day because they put in a great shift tonight and worked especially hard defensively. They defended so bravely and blocked shots and obviously Pauline made seven saves. It was just a great squad effort because of how hard they worked. It wasn’t always a pretty match for the fans, but it was one of those games where hard work really came into play and ultimately on the road that’s what you need in this league.”
For the Sun Devils (7-3-3, 3-3-1 Pac-12), the victory was significant as it came into Thursday’s game in the midst of a four-game winless streak (0-3-1). All three losses – vs. current No. 7 Stanford, at No. 1 UCLA, at then-No. 8 USC – were against squads that have been in the top 10 for much of the season and were the same three teams that started the week in a three-way tie atop the Pac-12, arguably the toughest conference in the nation from top to bottom.
“We’ve shown great character,” Winkworth said. “We have an incredible team culture and I think that carries us through the difficult moments. I told the team at the end of the game that it is important we enjoy these moments because we all face adversity and so it is important we don’t get too down when we are going through it and it is important that we enjoy the highs as well.”
One of the main themes of ASU’s win was quality over quantity. While the Cougars (8-4-3, 2-3-3) collected four times as many shots as the Sun Devils (32-8) and more than three times as many corner kicks (14-4), it was the latter that proved to be much more efficient putting 63 percent of its shots on frame while the former managed just 22 percent.
“There were a lot of shots but only 7-5 in shots on goal,” Winkworth explained. “There were a lot of shots being taken from long range, low percentage chances. With our shots we managed to hit the crossbar and force their goalkeeper to make an extraordinary save as well. We had good chances and some wonderful finishes and creativity from our players. We were great in the final third and had two nice assists, one from Lucy Johnson and one from Eva van Deursen and two great finishes from Liv and Hannah.”
After a scoreless first half, Nguyen broke the stalemate in the 50th minute by scoring the 13th goal of her career with Johnson’s assist making it happen.
The middle act of Thursday’s drama was defined by the tension and anxiety that exists any time a road team has the slimmest of advantages over its adversary. In this particular case, the adversary had failed to score just once this season and had lost only five of its last 42 home games going back to the 2018 season.
The Sun Devils were able to breathe a little easier after Leitner, who in her three seasons at New Mexico State was the program’s all-time assists leader and No. 8 in career goals, scored in the 74th minute with a helping hand from van Deursen to extend ASU’s lead to 2-0.
After Thursday’s results, the Sun Devils are now in sole possession of fifth place in the Pac-12. UCLA (14-1, 6-1 Pac-12) and Stanford (13-2-1, 6-1) are tied for first. Similar to ASU’s experience last week, USC – now in third place – found out just how difficult it is to score against Utah as it played the Utes to a scoreless tie. Cal (9-4-3, 4-3) has gone 4-1 since losing to ASU on Sept. 29 and is now in fourth place.
The Sun Devils close out their final road trip of the regular season on Sunday at Washington. Game time is set for 12 pm. Follow Sunday’s game either on UW’s live stream and/or via live stats.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Steve Rodriguez
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