TEMPE – The ninth-ranked TCU Horned Frogs showed the 1,910 fans in attendance at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium on Sunday afternoon why the squad from the Lonestar State sit atop the Big 12 Conference standings as the host Sun Devils were unable to rally from a two-goal deficit and ultimately fell to TCU 2-1.
With a trio of other conference teams in the top four of the conference standings having won their game prior to kickoff, TCU needed a win to return to the top of the conference standings. Arizona State goalkeeper Pauline Nelles and the Sun Devil defense nearly got to halftime with a 0-0 scoreline – ASU hasn’t lost a match this season when not surrendering a first-half goal – but TCU found the back of the net with 8:23 remaining in the first halftime.
After a Marli Galdamez shot attempt was blocked, the loose ball fell to the feet of Kaela Martinez, who immediately sent a chip pass into the 6-yard box where Morgan Brown headed the pass into the bottom left of the goal to put the Horned Frogs ahead 1-0. The shot attempt was the 10th of 11 first-half shots for TCU with Nelles having already made three saves.
TCU doubled its lead 33 seconds before the hour mark of the match when a Cameron Patton cross hit an Arizona State defender in the head and went into the goal.
But Arizona State was ready to battle back.
Following a foul near the midfield stripe, Grace Gillard sent a free kick along the left side of the pitch to Addison Baltodano, who took on a TCU defender and dribbled to the 18-yard box before sending in a cross that found its way to Tatum Thomason, who fired the loose ball into the right side of the goal for a Sun Devil goal.
The goal provided an energy burst for Arizona State, which spent the next 20 minutes looking for the game-tying goal, which included two shots on goal from Gillard. But once the game clock ticked under five minutes remaining, the Horned Frogs dribbled the ball into the closest corner flag to their bench and milked the remainder of match time without the ball getting more than 18 yards from the corner over the last five minutes.
FROM HEAD COACH GRAHAM WINKWORTH
“First, I have to give credit to TCU; a really deep, talented and well-coached team. They’re number three in the RPI for a reason. They are really good. Obviously, I’m disappointed with the scoreline; probably didn’t deserve to get the result today as the better team won. Having said that, though, the character that our team showed to stick in it was outstanding. This match last season, we were battered and beaten by halftime, but this year, we had the projected conference champion keeping the ball by the corner flag for five minutes at the end. I think that speaks volumes of the progression of this program.”
MATCH NOTES
- Tatum Thomason’s 66th-minute goal on Sunday afternoon was the first Arizona State goal against TCU in a match played in Tempe. The goal was Thomason’s seventh on the season, which is the most in a single season for the Peoria, Ariz., native after having six as a sophomore at Washington in 2023.
- By being credited with six saves throughout the match’s 90 minutes, Arizona State goalkeeper Pauline Nelles (300; 2022-P) joined Erin Reinke (369; 1997-00) as the only student-athletes in program history to be credited with 300-or-more saves throughout their collegiate soccer careers as a Sun Devil.
UP NEXT
- With Sunday’s match representing the final home match of the 2025 regular season for the Sun Devils, Arizona State (10-5-3, 3-5-2) will wrap up its regular season on the road with a trip to Tucson awaiting on Thursday, Oct. 30, when ASU will square off with Arizona (7-11-0, 2-8-0) at 7 p.m. MST.
FOLLOW US
- For the latest information on the team, follow @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TheSunDevils on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.