(Photo: Valeria Rodriguez/WCSN)
The Arizona State women’s soccer team continued to ride momentum from Thursday’s 3-1 win against UTEP, defeating the New Mexico State Aggies 4-0 on Sunday and improving their record to 2-0.
The Sun Devil offense, which struggled last season, flourished yet again in Sunday’s game. Junior forward Nicole Douglas led the offense, notching her second career hat trick. Those three goals moved her into seventh all-time in goals for ASU women’s soccer.
Douglas’s first goal came in the 22nd minute when junior forward Olivia Nguyen dribbled into the box, stumbled and then found Douglas who was waiting at the top of the box. Douglas hit a rocket into the bottom right corner giving the Sun Devils a 1-0 lead.
When asked about playing the false nine role Douglas said, “I think that definitely suits me, I mean we’ve been working on it a lot in training and I feel like it’s benefited me a lot.”
Douglas would go on to score two more goals in the second half, the second goal coming in the 71st minute with junior Eva Van Deursen finding Douglas cutting through the box. Douglas fired the shot straight into the right corner.
To cap off the hat trick, Douglas found the back of the net for the final time in the 78th minute. Junior Alexia Delgado took the corner, sending in a perfect ball, which found the head of the junior from England and ended up in the back of the net.
“We don’t deserve to be last on the table [last season’s bottom finish in the Pac-12]. We are going to push as far up on that table,” Douglas said.
In addition to Douglas’s offensive contributions, junior Eva Van Deursen managed to record an assist and a 50th minute goal. Senior Olive Jones crossed the ball into the box, finding Van Deursen who clinically put away the shot into the bottom right corner.
This goal meant more than just going up 2-0 on the Aggies for Van Deursen, “My grandma passed away last weekend and I dedicated this goal to her. That is why it was extra special to me.”
The offense for the Sun Devils was not the only thing firing on all cylinders. The midfield throughout the game put the Aggies under constant pressure with a relentless press. Van
Deursen mentioned the ruthless press in the post game conference, saying that the press helped the team wake up at the beginning of the game and allowed them to control the game.
Both junior Alexia Delgado and freshman Jazmine Wilkinson led the press in the middle of the park for the Sun Devils. As soon as the Aggies got control of the ball, one of the two was pressing and winning the ball back immediately. They would then distribute the ball to the forwards and midfielders, allowing the Sun Devils to constantly be on the attack. The pressure got to the Aggies late in the game as three of the four goals scored by ASU came in the second half.
The back line also played well, keeping their first clean sheet of the season. Sophomore goalkeeper Giulia Cascapera was called open once in this game, making an acrobatic save in the 83rd minute saving NMSU freshman Megan Ormosn’s volley right in front of the net.
The back line has also helped the offense out with the fullbacks pushing up and wide in the last two games. This has allowed the field to spread a lot in the attack, allowing Douglas to find space in the false nine role. However this does leave the back line vulnerable with only two or three defenders back.
“That will be a game by game decision. We have to evaluate our opponents every game and decide whether or not we want the fullbacks to push up. When Jess [senior Jessica Hale], Tahlia [freshman Tahlia Herman-Watt], Johnson [freshman Lucy Johnson], and Kiki [sophomore Kiki Stewart] went forward today there was always cover and they did a great job spreading the field for the attacker,” said head coach Graham Winkworth on having the fullbacks push up.
Even with a dominant 4-0 win for the Sun Devils there is still work to do. In the last five minutes of the game, the Aggies began to gain some momentum and put the Sun Devils under pressure. Winkworth touched on not yet putting together a solid 90 minutes of soccer after letting in a late deflection goal against UTEP Thursday and letting NMSU have some momentum at the end of Sunday’s game.
Winkworth said that the key aspect missing is communication and focus. Winkworth continued by saying that playing two games a week on Thursday and Sunday is menatly draining after not playing for months due to Covid-19 and that was conveyed at the end of both games.
Nicole Douglas and the ASU women’s soccer team will look to build off of two dominating wins on February 11 as they take on their hometown rival Grand Canyon University. This will be the first away game for the Sun Devils and the first of two matchups against GCU.
