The Sun Devils Remain in the Win Column Staying Undefeated in Tempe

(Photo Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)

TEMPE— Arizona State (5-2) remain undefeated at home after claiming a victory over Mercer (1-4) Tuesday evening.

After their victory Saturday at home, the Sun Devils continue to add tallies to the win column, defeating the Bears 16-10. This improves ASU’s record to 3-0 at home.

ASU saw nine different goal scorers find the back of the net, with two Sun Devils tallying hat tricks.

Senior attacker Anna Thornton was one of the Sun Devils who scored a hat trick in the contest. Going into this game, Thornton had two goals on the season, adding one to the score sheet against Denver and one against Detroit Mercy. All but one of her shots this season have been on goal shots on goal rate, scoring on all three of her shots goal against the Bears.

Junior attacker Teagan Ng has not slowed down offensively. Also scoring a hat trick, Ng is up to 24 goals on the season and currently leads the team in goals.

Ng has scored multiple goals in every matchup so far this season, and in five of those games, she has scored a hat trick or more.

“Teagan is a consistent force,” Head Coach Taryn VanThof Puls said. “She’s like that every day at practice. She makes sure she brings her best every single day. Whether that’s as a goals scorer, as an assister, a scout player, and I don’t think you can ask for a better teammate.”

Another Sun Devil who made sure she didn’t go unnoticed was junior attacker Jordyn Behar. Behar tallied a total of six points against Mercer with one goal and five assists.

Behar leads the Sun Devils in assists and points with 27 and 39, respectively, while sitting at that number three spot in goals with 12.

Going into the second period, ASU was sitting at a three-point lead with a score of 4-1 after the first 15 minutes of play. That was until the Bears came out firing in the second and scored four goals by four different Bears.

Mercer scored three goals in the final five minutes of the second period. While the Sun Devils kept up offensively, it was apparent the Bears were in the position for a comeback attempt, going into halftime in a four-goal deficit with the score of 9-5, still in favor of ASU.

“Killing momentum” was the main change at halftime in the defense for the Sun Devils, according to VanThof Puls, and that was precisely what ASU did, only allowing four goals in the second half.

Senior goaltender Katie Vahle was the decisive force in the net for ASU for the majority of the contest. After making monster save after monster save, Vahle ended the night with nine saves and seven goals allowed. VanThof Puls harps that consistency is a significant factor in how this ASU team plays the game.

“She’s [Vahle] a consistent factor for us,” VanThof Puls noted. “If we give her the right shot, she’s going to make the save, and I thought the defense did a great job giving her what she needed to see.”

This Sun Devil lacrosse team is halfway through a four-game homestand that will continue into next weekend. The team will be looking to see if it can continue adding victories to the win column and stay undefeated at home.

“Every opponent, every game, it’s something new,” VanThof Puls said. “It’s a clean slate, so you can’t really look at what the record is or what you want it to be. You’ve got to go and attack for a full 60 minutes.”