(Photo: Valeria Rodriguez/WCSN)
Playing under the lights of Sun Devil Stadium, the Arizona State Sun Devils (1-0) bounced back after last season’s disappointing ending, winning 3-1 against the University of Texas at El Paso Miners (0-1).
Junior forward Nicole Douglas picked up right where she left off scoring a pair of goals on Thursday night.
Her superb one-touch goal from the top of the box in the first half helped settle the team’s nerves and grow into the game.
“I think, after 15 months we’re a bit nervous for our first game back,” Douglas said. “But then once we scored that first goal, we’ve got our confidence levels up and it just continued from there.”
Chances would come for the Sun Devils. They dominated the game with 19 shots and four shots on target.
A majority of those chances came from an excellent performance by the fullbacks. On the wings, they beat defenders and sent in good crosses. ASU head coach Graham Winkworth played with three defenders to help set up the offense.
“Three in the back would allow us to push our fullbacks a little bit higher,” Winkworth said. “I thought it would open up the field a little bit more, and we should’ve gotten on the end of a few crosses.”
In addition to strong wing play, Arizona State commanded possession and comfortably controlled the midfield. The Sun Devils winning the battle in midfield helped set up more opportunities to score.
The midfielders did everything you could ask for. They played through balls into forwards, built up the attack on the wings, and snuffed out UTEP’s attacks on offense.
Pressing UTEP’s back line also helped create even more goal-scoring opportunities for ASU. The Sun Devils frequently won the ball back in their attacking third, resulting in more crosses just waiting to be scored.
Junior midfielder Alexia Delgado had the heads-up play of the game when she quickly threw in the ball before the Miners could set up their defense directly leading to junior midfielder Olivia Nguyen’s first goal of her career.
“In practice last week we’ve really been working on the scoring,” Nguyen said. “So, it was awesome to see that work pay off although not every opportunity ended up in the back of the net, it’s a start and we’re all eager to continue moving forward from here.”
The defense stepped up as well, playing strong all game conceding just one goal that deflected into the back of the net.
The Miners liked to play long balls and feed their fast forwards making intelligent runs. ASU was up to that task.
One player that stood out was sophomore defender Lieske Carleer. As the only outfield player to play the full 90 minutes, she won her aerial duels and shut down UTEP’s two quick and strong forwards.
“[Carleer’s] a leader at the back,” Winkworth said. She’s very good offensively as a defender, but tonight she did a great job defensively, and to be fair I thought all three [defenders] did a good job defensively.
Recent addition to the team, junior forward Vildan Kardeslar, made an instant impact in her debut for ASU. Kardeslar took on and skipped past defenders with ease all game long and played accurate through balls from the middle third of the field. In the final 10 minutes, she picked off a UTEP defender to assist Douglas for the team’s third goal.
Things were a little rocky after that play for the Sun Devils. After Douglas scored the team’s third goal, the Miners quickly responded with a goal from junior forward Ayana Noel. That goal breathed new life into UTEP as they bombarded the Sun Devil backline with waves of attack in the final 10 minutes. The defense was up to the task, seeing out the final moments of the game making sure sophomore goalie Amanda Green didn’t have to make a save.
The Sun Devils look to keep their momentum in their next game against New Mexico State on Feb. 7 right back in Sun Devil Stadium.
