Oct. 14, 2011
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State women's soccer team put forth a determined effort but in the end it was not enough on Friday night as the top-ranked Stanford Cardinal defeated the Sun Devils 3-1.
With the loss the Sun Devils fell to 6-8 (2-4 Pac-12) while the Cardinal improved to 14-0-1 (2-4 Pac-12) with their 57th consecutive regular season win.
"We always play hard and that is a given, but we have to play smart as well," ASU head coach Kevin Boydsaid following the match. "We had a game plan and we followed it in the first half - although we got down 2-0 because of a couple errors - and then in the second half we abandoned our game plan.
"Our game plan was to try and keep the ball and make them defend. When we got [the ball] we needed to keep it for a while. Our goal was to put four or more passes together on a regular basis. We did that in the first half, but we did not do that in the second half."
The Cardinal got on the board first in the 25th minute when Stanford forward Lindsay Taylor scored on a header, which was set up by a free kick.
Stanford would extend its lead to 2-0 in the 34th minute when an attempted clearance by the Sun Devils ricocheted off a Stanford player and bounced right to Stanford forward Chioma Ubogagu who found the back of the net for her seventh goal of the season.
The score would remain the same until the 78th minute when Cardinal forward Marjani Hing-Glover one-timed a shot off a cross from teammate Natalie Griffen.
Despite being down 3-0, the Sun Devils continued to fight and their persistence would pay off in the 88th minute when they were able to draw a penalty kick. Nicki Stonewas successful on the ensuing attempt for her third goal of the season to make the final count 3-1.
"We've got a little fight to us and kept going all the way through and I like that," Boyd said. "We may have gotten one in late, but at least we got one."
Devin Marshall led the Sun Devils with two shots while Alyssa Gillmoremade five saves.
Many of the 1,169 fans who were on hand for Friday night's match, which was nationally televised, were attired in pink as Sun Devil Soccer held a `Pink Out' promotion to raise breast cancer awareness. Prior to the match the Sun Devil soccer program retired the No. 21 jersey of former Sun Devil Stacey Tullock, who earlier this month became the first soccer player to be inducted in the ASU Sports Hall of Fame.
The Sun Devils return to action next week when they travel to Los Angeles to face USC (Friday at 3 p.m. PT) and No. 5 UCLA (Sunday at 1 p.m.).