(Photo: Zina Garcia/ WCSN)
Ahead of the Inaugural Big 12 Lacrosse Tournament, being held in Boulder,by the University of Colorado, Arizona State is hungry for a win against the home team, whom they lost to by one goal earlier this season.
The winner of this matchup will go on to play the winner of UC Davis and Florida in the Big 12 championship game. UC Davis is currently seeded at number four in the Big 12 while their competitor, Florida, is seeded at number five in the country and number one in their conference. Making Florida the clear favorite to win their matchup.
After a close 14-13 loss against Colorado less than a month ago, the Sun Devils are traveling to play the Buffaloes on their own home turf. After being seeded at numbers two and three in their conference, it was announced that they would get their rematch.
During the most recent match up between the teams ASU was missing multiple players. Some players started the game and were unable to finish due to sickness, and some didn’t make it out to the field for the same reason.
Since their match earlier this season, the Sun Devils have gone 2-1 and the Buffaloes have gone 2-2.
During the last matchup between the teams, the goalkeeping statistics showed quite a contrast between the two teams. Freshman Colorado goalkeeper Elena Oh, who played the full 60 minutes, had only had three saves for the 13 goals scored on her. While ASU senior Katie Vahle, who also played the full 60 minutes, had 13 saves for the 14 goals scored on her. Meaning Colorado’s defense was effective in shutting down the Sun Devil offense. Since Colorado had significantly fewer saves than Arizona State, even with the goals scored by each team being so close, the Sun Devils didn’t get as many shots off against their opponents. The Sun Devil defense, however, seemed to be struggling a bit more to keep up with their opponent’s offense since they clearly got more shots off than ASU.
Colorado had to have at the minimum 27 shots in the match while Arizona State had to have at least 16. Those goal percentages are quite different. With the minimum shots taken, Colorado was at a .519 percentage while ASU had a .813. This also shows that when the Sun Devil offense was able to strike, they had a much better chance at success than the Buffaloes. In actuality, Colorado had a total of 35 shots and ASU had a total of 21 shots in the game. Making those goal percentages shift a bit, Colorado going down to .4 as well as ASU going down to .619 in the game.
Vahle has been a crucial part of the Sun Devils winning season, breaking multiple school records and reaching career milestones in her last season with the team. Vahle became the all-time saves leader for sun devil lacrosse, reached 500 career saves and then an even bigger milestone of 600 career saves, earned a new career-high 18 saves in a single game, and was named Big 12 goalie of the week. Vahle has been a huge part of the Sun Devils’ success, saving her team while saving shots.
