Sun Devil Soccer hands WSU its first home loss of the season in 2-0 win

More to come…

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 24^th of her career and is now one assist away from tying Sun Devil Hall of Famer Stacey Tullock at the top of the list.

 

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.

 

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.

 

After a scoreless first half, Nguyen broke the stalemate in the 50^th minute by scoring the 13^th 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 last only five of its last 42 home games going back to the 2018…