ASU’s women’s soccer team loses in the NCAA Tournament,
No. 9-seeded Duke scored in the second overtime Saturday for a 2-1 win over Arizona State in the NCAA Tournament second round in Greenville, N.C.
Sophie Jones put the golden goal past ASU goalie Giulia Cascapera off a long pass from Maggie Graham in the 103rd minute.
ASU evened the game in the 87th minute when Nicole Douglas scored on a blast off the crossbar and down into the goal, originally credited to Cori Sullivan. Douglas’ 10th goal of the season and 30th of the junior’s career sent the Sun Devils into overtime for the seventh time this season.
The only first-half goal was by Duke on a long feed from Delaney Graham onto the foot of Tess Boade, who put an almost indefensible shot past Cascapera in the 29th minute.
Duke (11-5-3) advanced to a Sweet 16 match against Mississippi on Wednesday. The Rebels upset No. 8 seed USC on Friday with a penalty kick victory.
ASU’s season ends at 9-6-2. The Sun Devils made their first NCAA appearance since 2014 but failed to reach the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in school history.
“I’m very disappointed with the result,” ASU coach Graham Winkworth said. “It’s heartbreaking to lose in the fashion we lost. It’s almost even more heartbreaking because you play against one of the best teams in the country and if you’re outplayed then it’s like we weren’t very good and they deserved to win.
“I felt we were not outplayed. We gave a really strong effort and were unfortunate to lose the match.”
The Sun Devils had a good early scoring chance from Jazmine Wilkinson, who was wide on a close shot. In the 68th minute, Olive Jones put a shot over the goal off a corner kick.
Cascapera made a stellar save in the 78th minute on a shot from inside the box by Marykate McGuire to keep ASU in contention.
ASU’s Lucy Johnson missed high on a shot in the 80th minute.
Both teams had scoring chances in the first 10-minute overtime including ASU in the closing seconds on the header by Jones off a corner kick saved by Duke goalie Ruthie Jones.
“We have to work on being more clinical (scoring-wise),” Winkworth said. “We’ve got some wonderful young ladies that work extremely hard. I’m sure they’ll be working on their crossing and finishing. But to be honest, they’ve had an incredible year and I’m just proud of them.
“It’s frustrating to lose a game so close but at the same time I don’t think too many people gave us a shout going into this game and they certainly didn’t give us a shout going into this season,” when ASU was picked to finish last in the Pac-12 by conference coaches.
Both teams had nine shots. Duke led 8-5 in shots on goal and ASU led 9-6 on corner kicks.
Sullivan, a junior from Prescott, scored in ASU’s 4-0 first-round win over Siena on Wednesday and was alert enough to follow Douglas’ shot just in case it was needed.
“You don’t want to take any chances,” Winkworth said of Sullivan’s follow. “We can figure out who scores afterwards (exatly what happened), let’s just get it in the net.
“To be honest when Dougie (Douglas) hit the shot and it hit the crossbar, it just felt like it wasn’t to be for a moment. We were having all those quality efforts, but it just wasn’t going in. But fortunately Cori followed it up. At that point we nearly won it in regulation then I thought we were going to win it in overtime. But credit to Duke, they finished their chance.”
Of Duke’s goals, Winkworth said, “The game had opened up a little bit on both occasions. That last one was a midfield player running in from the back post. We’ve asked Eva (Van Deursen) and Alexia (Delgado) and Jaz (Wilkinson) to play 103 minutes so tracking those runs is extremely challenging. The players were struggling with cramps. It was just a run at the back post that we didn’t see. It happened on both goals.
“But I don’t want to focus on one or two things we didn’t do so well in this game because we did so many other things extremely well. I’m really happy with the performance, it’s just the result wasn’t to be.”