(Photo: Zina Garcia/ WCSN)
The frigid Milwaukee weather was not enough to slow down the red-hot Arizona State Sun Devils (7-4) offense in its clash with the Marquette Golden Eagles (7-3). However, a late goal from the home side forced overtime, where MU sent the fans home happy, finishing off an 18-17 victory.
The Sun Devils appeared to be on their way to a third one-goal victory of the season until Marquette snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Senior midfielder Hanna Boder carried the scoring load, finishing the game-tying goal with just under a minute to go before adding the game-winner 49 seconds into the overtime period. The multiple-time Big East Midfielder of the Week will be well on her way to yet another award by scoring a career-high eight goals against the Sun Devils.
Boders monstrous effort was also aided by junior attacker Tess Osburn who added a hat trick to help balance out the Golden Eagles scoring. MU’s highly potent offense came up huge on a day in which its goaltending struggled with senior goaltender Brynna Nixon’s save percentage being just south of .300, a less-than-ideal mark.
ASU’s attack took a much more balanced approach with seven different goal scorers on the day. Junior attacker Teagen Ng continued her stellar season finding the back of the net five times on Tuesday, a tally that led the Sun Devils. That performance brought her to an astonishing 38 goals on the season, an incredible accomplishment for the Canadian.
Junior attacker Lydia Oldknow and Freshman Kendal Morris both added hat tricks. Morris has been a pleasant surprise for the Sun Devils this season as her production as a true freshman has been excellent, the two goals she scored Tuesday brought her season total above double digits.
The consistency of junior attacker Jordyn Behar has been a sight to see. The extremely talented passer was able to dish out three assists and also score two more goals of her own. The five-point performance has become second nature for the talented New Yorker.
ASU was able to dominate draw controls during the game winning 24 of the 37. However, it struggled to convert those possessions into shots, a category in which it was outnumbered 46 to 29. A large gap in shots like that can be traced back to one statistic, turnovers. ASU turned the ball over four more times than MU, a problematic statistic that will for sure be a point of emphasis for head coach Taryn Van Thof.
Another alarming statistic for the Sun Devils came in the ground balls category. The Golden Eagles had nine more ground balls than their opponents, something that surely aided them in their eventual win. This statistic has always fallen into the “hustle plays” category of the game, one ASU had to win to have a shot at grabbing a quality victory over a solid team away from home.
The Sun Devils are back in action next Saturday when they welcome Big 12 opposition to Tempe for the first time in program history by way of a conference clash with the Cincinnati Bearcats.
