(Photo: Xavier Litman/WCSN)
A squad composed of 20 underclassmen should not have a chance against a top-ranked opponent in college soccer, despite the odds Arizona State soccer (6-2-3) proved it can hang with the best of them Thursday night.
No. 3 Stanford (9-0-1) has proven to be a perennial threat to win the national championship this season and after 90n the Cardinal went home with a win in the bay, but the Sun Devils did not go down easy.
The contest finished 2-1 to Stanford, a back-and-forth match that saw a winner in the 82nd minute from sophomore Phenom Jasmine Aikey after a composed finish left ASU goalkeeper Pauline Nelles with no chance.
Aikey leads the Cardinals in goals with five on the season, building off an incredible freshman campaign that saw her named All-Pac-12 second team.
The other Stanford goal came early in the first half when freshman forward Erica Grillione finished a pinpoint cross from sophomore forward Andrea Kitahata.
ASU dug deep after Grillione’s 28th-minute goal, hanging in the contest and not giving up any more shots on target in the first half.
The reigning Pac-12 champions proved to be dominant again last night. The Cardinals registered 22 shots Thursday night, 10 more than any side has had against Arizona State this season.
Early in the second half, the Sun Devils struck gold, and graduate forward Florance Vaillancourt blasted a strike past junior goalkeeper Hailey Cregg.
The equalizer was massive for Arizona State, the entire squad launched onto Vaillancourt as soon as they found the back of the net, the excitement could be felt by all the players as they realized how important that goal could have been.
The Sun Devils have positives to take away from Thursday, defensively the performance was impressive once again from, Nelles saving six shots Thursday night.
Arizona State was forced to sit back making the night long for the entire defensive unit, sophomore defender Andrea Kraetzer played the full 90 minutes working hard all night.
Thursday’s match was the first time all season that Arizona State conceded multiple goals, despite the defensive record has been outstanding thus far, still a top 15 defensive in the NCAA, even a top team in the nation was forced to grind for two goals.
On the attacking front, only five total shots for the Sun Devils can look concerning at surface level, however, the Cardinals have a history of shutting teams down only allowing six shots in contests against Duke and San Diego, and St. Marys could only scrape two shots in its contest vs Stanford as well.
Looking past this match for ASU, the remainder of the Pac-12 schedule is not easy, Sunday afternoon contest against California will be a difficult match as the Golden Bears have won their last three matches with two of those being in conference play.
The Sun Devils will look to get back on track over the weekend, a Sunday kickoff at 1 p.m. MST at California that will be another test on the road for a young Sun Devil team.
