Posted Sep 17, 2012, 9:07 am
The University of Arizona and Loyola Marymount University ended the Cats Classic soccer tournament with a 110-minute scoreless draw on Sunday night at Mulcahy Stadium.
While the defense recorded another shutout, poor finishing up front meant no win for the Wildcats.
It wasn't that neither team had looks, Arizona and Loyola managed plenty of shots on goal. In the first half Arizona had eight, while LMU had six. The trouble for both teams was how rarely they managed to get behind the defense, leaving many of the shots to be low percentage and long range.
After a strong victory over Florida International on Friday, coach Lisa Oyen acknowledged that her team could have performed better against the Lions.
"I don't think it was our best game of the season," she said after the match. "I think LMU did a good job of bouncing back after their loss on Friday and we did the opposite."
Loyola's best chance came in the second half when the bar and Arizona's defense was unable to get control of the ball before a second LMU attacker took another shot.
A subsequent collision with Arizona keeper Gabby Kaufman led to a yellow card for Loyola's Cori McGovern in the 76th minute.
Susana Melendez took the last shot of the match for the Wildcats, but her 86th minute blast rocketed safely over the crossbar.
The two extra "golden goal" periods produced little offense, but provided some last minute drama with a shot from LMU's Madison Heilmann. The final whistle blew with zeroes on the board.
The tie puts Arizona's record at 4-3-1. The team travels to Berkeley to open their PAC-12 season against California on Saturday.
'I don't think it was our best game of the season'
"I don't think we did a real good job of reading or solving the game," Oyen said. "On the plus side, we got a shut out."
Although Arizona ended the match with 18 shots on goal, only five were on target. LMU's defense kept Arizona from taking high percentage shots.
"The way that LMU defended wasn't the way that other teams defend us," she said. "And we didn't solve that."
Despite seeming to be the prime target for LMU's defense every time she got near the box, Jazmin Ponce tallied six shots. Still, only one was on target.
"They found out the way I played," said Ponce. "They were so big... I tried to turn and hit it every time, but it just wasn't going my way."
"It was frustrating, but we are going to learn from it," she added.
Still, as Oyen said, the team earned a shutout.
"We meshed really well," said freshman defender Sheridan Cohen. "We worked on our communication and stay as a unit. We get along in our play really well."
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And the women from Tempe Normal...
In Sunday afternoon's match, Arizona State walked away with a 3-0 victory over Florida International. Devin Marshall, Holland Crook, and Miah Mollay each contributed to the Sun Devils goals.
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