(Santa Clara, CA) The Sun Devil soccer team was unable to extend its remarkable season as the Sun Devils fell to Santa Clara 3-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
The Sun Devils were making their second consecutive and third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last four years under head coach Graham Winkworth. For the Sun Devils, this year’s berth was a testament to the culture built under the tutelage of Winkworth as ASU entered the 2023 campaign with a cast that did not include the players who accounted for 79 percent of the team’s goals last season.
Despite the challenge in front of them, this year’s Sun Devil team relied on a stout defense and an outstanding goalkeeper in Pauline Nelles, who set the single-season record for shutouts with nine. Nelles, standout defender Lieske Carleer and leading scorer Enasia Colon were named All-Pac-12 Second Team as voted on by the league’s coaches.
As was the case in their last three contests of the regular season, the Sun Devils gave up multiple goals in Saturday’s loss. How rare was such an occurrence during the regular season? In their first 17 games, the Sun Devils gave up multiple goals one time: a 2-1 loss at Stanford.
Statistically, the Broncos (14-4-2) had advantages over the Sun Devils (10-7-4) in shots (13-8), shots on goal (5-3) and corner kicks (5-4).
The Sun Devils got the first opportunity for a set piece when they earned a corner kick in the fourth minute, one of three corner kicks they accumulated in the game’s first 21 minutes.
Santa Clara scored the first goal of the game on the game’s first shot of the game in the seventh minute. Santa Clara’s Colby Barnett was able to dribble her way into the far side of the box, then sent a cross that was met by the head of Sally Mitchell resulting in the goal.
Gabi Rennie nearly set up a dangerous scoring opportunity for the Sun Devils when she got inside the box and slipped a pass to Enasia Colon. ASU’s leading goal scorer this season, Colon had barely a second to react which resulted in her shot being blocked out of bounds.
In the 20th minute, Rennie was able to get a cross into the box despite having three Broncos near her. Unfortunately for ASU, no Sun Devils were in the area and the Broncos immediately cleared the ball.
The Sun Devil defense did an excellent shot of turning back Santa Clara in the 22nd minute after the Broncos made a series of passes while possessing the ball in the box for several seconds. Nonetheless, the Sun Devils did not allow the Broncos to get a shot off.
Rennie attempted to catch the Broncos by surprise when she took a shot from the top of the box in the 25th minute, but Santa Clara goalkeeper Marlee Nichols went to the ground to make the save.
Rennie got another look in the 29th minute, but Nichols was in perfect position to make the save on the shot Rennie launched from 15 yards away.
Nelles was able to keep it a one-goal game in the 35th minute when she kept Barnett from scoring after the Santa Clara forward dribbled the ball three quarters of the field before firing a shot that Nelles was able to get a piece of and keep it from going into the net.
The optics of the game dramatically changed for the Sun Devils in the space of less than three minutes after the Broncos scored goals in the 36th minute (Alyssa Bourgeois) and the 39th minute (Annie Karich) to increase their advantage to 3-0.
Other than a shot by Suzuka Yosue that forced Nichols to make a diving save in the 63rd minute, the Sun Devils were not able to create any moments that would have caused the kind of reversal in momentum they needed to start a comeback.
Rennie led ASU with three shots and had two of ASU’s three shots on goal. Also recording shots for the Sun Devils were Colon (2), Yosue (1/1 SOG), Keri Matthews (1) and Hannah Leitner (1).
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Steve Rodriguez
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