(Photo By: Sam Farsky/ WCSN)
In the most anticipated game of the season for Arizona State Soccer, the Sun Devils were shut out, ending their regular season schedule with a sour taste in their mouths. For the second year in a row, ASU fell to Arizona, ending their regular season with a loss.
On one side of the midfield line, the Wildcats celebrated their second straight victory over their bitter rivals the Sun Devils. The other side of the line showed a team deflated. It was a scene of dismay not only by the loss tonight but by the number of losses that have piled up in recent weeks. Five of the last six games to be exact.
Not only did losing to their most hated adversary for the second year in a row sting, but considering it was also ASU’s senior night, the Wildcats successfully squeezed the lemon juice deep into the Devils’ wound. Tonight was a very clear microcosm of the Sun Devils’ season in 2024-2025: Lots of opportunities emerged for ASU only for them to be squandered.
Starting in the seventh minute, junior midfielder Enasia Colon couldn’t convert on a chance up close. The first real scoring opportunity of the night for either squad was thwarted by the Wildcat’s junior goalkeeper Olivia Ramey.
The Wildcats took advantage of the Devils’ missed opportunity just four minutes later when freshman forward Narissa Fults was in the right place at the right time. A shot by graduate student forward Nicolle Dallin was mishandled by ASU junior goalkeeper Pauline Nelles. Nelles looked to have a handle on the primary shot, until the ball slipped out of her grasp and directly onto the waiting foot of Fults.
1-0 Wildcats.
The next 25 minutes were arguably the most excruciating of the season for the Sun Devils. Looking to tie things up in the 15th minute ASU had two fantastic chances in the box before the Wildcats were able to clear the ball. Then, in the 18th minute, junior forward Cameron Valladaras missed out on getting her revenge on her former team by nailing the crossbar.
After that, it was a string of chances tossed to the wayside by ASU. Late in the first half, freshman forward Kierra Blundell received a gorgeous cross from fifth-year defender Lucy Johnson. With perhaps the best look of the night for the Sun Devils, Blundell aimed her shot off her head to the far side of the goal for a shot that looked destined to find the back of a then-open net.
That was until the paw of Ramey as if by magic, appeared to parry it wide keeping her rivals out.
“I should have scored it,” Blundell said. “It was a really good save, I didn’t think she was going to make that save.”
Much like this game the season overall has been a calamity of unrealized opportunities, especially as of late for the Devils, going the aforementioned 1-5 in their last six contests. After the beginning of the season showed so much promise starting an undefeated 5-0-2 in non-conference play, ASU headed into Big 12 play with the hopes of finishing as a top seed in the conference heading into the conference tournament. That wasn’t the case.
The Sun Devils were only able to muster two wins against Big 12 opponents over their first 8 matches played inside the conference. A win against Kansas State on October 17th didn’t help their momentum with a loss to Kansas and a loss tonight against Arizona making their final interconference record a relatively unsatisfactory 3-7-1.
The rest of the game continued similarly for the Sun Devils. A couple more opportunities appeared, but none were better than either the Valladeras crossbar stinger or the Blundell header. Arizona also had a couple of good looks, but none good enough to best Nelles again.
“We hit the crossbar, they hit the crossbar and it could have gone either way,” ASU head coach Graham Winkworth said. “We are disappointed in the result, but hopefully we can get a little bit more clinical on Wednesday.”
The Wednesday mentioned, will be ASU’s first-round matchup against Kansas in Kansas City for the Big 12 Women’s soccer championship tournament. Having fallen short of early season aspirations of earning a high seed in this tournament the Sun Devils enter Kansas City as the 11th of 12 total seeds. They go with the understanding that the only clear path to an NCAA tournament berth seems to be nothing less than a Big 12 conference tournament win which would secure them an automatic bid. ASU will need to rebound both mentally and physically. If it hopes of making any noise in the tournament, beginning with Kansas Wednesday night.
“You can always do things better,” Johnson said. “Obviously we lost today so we can make some tweaks. It’s a beautiful opportunity to go again.”
These teams squared off on October 20th with Kansas coming out on top 2-1. Now just 10 days later on October 30th, these squads take the pitch yet again, this time to determine who will advance to the second round of the Big 12 Tournament.
