(Photo: Valeria Rodriguez)
The Arizona State women’s soccer team (4-0) swept crosstown rivals Grand Canyon University (0-4) winning 4-0 to finish non-conference play perfectly.
Grand Canyon looked to get revenge after falling to Arizona State in golden goal in their last matchup. Once again it was junior midfielder Olivia Nguyen who put the game to bed.
Fresh off scoring the game-winner on Thursday, Nguyen’s hot start to the season carried over to Sunday’s game where she added two goals and an assist in the win over GCU. Her first goal of the game came three minutes into the second half where she found herself in the right place at the right time during a corner kick and scrambled the ball into the net to give the Sun Devils a 2-0 lead.
“[Nguyen’s] been phenomenal,” head coach Graham Winkworth said. “I’m really proud of her because she didn’t play very many minutes in previous years and she’s worked her way into the team and there’s nothing more pleasing for a coach when a player works their socks off and earns the right to play.”
Getting involved on the creative side, Nguyen dribbled past a defender on the wing and sent in a picture-perfect cross met by senior forward Olive Jones’ diving header for the team’s third goal. Nguyen wasn’t done yet, getting on the end of freshman midfielder Jazmine Wilkinson’s header and tapping in the Sun Devil’s fourth goal of the game.
The game began a little sloppy from both schools. Passes going astray, defense miscues, and no real grip in the midfield saw a quiet game for the two teams in the first half. It wasn’t until right before halftime when a quick throw-in saw sophomore defender Lieske Carleer tip the ball into the feet of junior midfielder Isabel Dehakiz who slotted the ball past the GCU keeper to score the first goal of the game in the 44th minute.
“I think it was great to score right at the end basically, it was kind of like ‘yeah, we got this, we can do more for this,’” Dehakiz said. “I think it just led us with a good mindset going into the half and second half we came out firing.”
Scoring late gave the Sun Devils confidence and momentum to score more goals in the second half.
Going into their second consecutive game with GCU, Winkworth made adjustments to give his team the edge.
“GCU were very compact in the first game so we wanted to get [Lucy Johnson] and [Tahlia Herman-Watt] higher in the second game, but GCU did a phenomenal job,” Winkworth said. “And they were very compact so they would get to our wide players quickly and prevented us from creating too much but I thought we did a better job towards the end of the first half, but we wanted to get our wide players forward a little bit more than we did in the first game.”
A lot of ASU’s production came from the wings and sending in good crosses waiting to be scored. Corner kicks and crosses will be key for the Sun Devils as they scored three goals from crosses and corners in the win.
The Sun Devils will need to keep their momentum entering a competitive PAC-12 league.
“I’m interested to see our players and can we reach the same sort of numbers? Can we perform at the same sort of levels? Can we have the same standards when you’re challenging yourselves against the best young players in the world?” Winkworth said. “Because that is what is in the PAC-12 we’re not just talking about some of the best players in the United States, we’re talking about some of the best youth players in the world.”
The Sun Devils have some time off before league play returns where they’ll face the USC Trojans in Tempe on Feb. 26th.
