ASU soccer loses to UCLA, Mexican National

 by Gina Mizell
 published on Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bettina Hansen / THE STATE PRESS

PARDON ME: ASU’s Alissa Oldenkamp tries to take possession of the ball from Mexico’s Evelyn Lopez at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium, where ASU lost, 3-0.

The ASU women's soccer team went 0-2 this past weekend in its first exhibition games of the spring at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.

The Sun Devils lost to UCLA 4-3 Saturday before losing to the Mexican National Team 3-0 Sunday.

The Mexican National Team was on offense for most of the first half, as it outshot the Sun Devils 7-1 during the first 45 minutes.

Team Mexico got on the board in the 35th minute when midfielder Evelyn Lopez crossed the ball perfectly to forward Lupita Worbis, who put it past ASU sophomore goalkeeper Briana Silvestri.

"Things fall apart so fast [in the spring]," Silvestri said. "Defensively, we just kind of aren't as tight as we should be, but we were solid in the fall and we just got to [have] repetition and we'll get back in it."

Team Mexico tacked on another goal in the final minute of the first half when forward Tania Morales took a penalty kick that went directly past Silvestri and into the back of the net.

The Mexican National Team scored once more, this time in the last minute of the game when Morales got the ball inside the goal box and shot it past ASU sophomore goalkeeper Katie Cochran and into the back, right corner of the net.

"We got shown a different level of play," ASU coach Kevin Boyd said. "They played at a pace significantly higher than we play, and that's what you would expect from a national team. We just weren't ready for it. We did better in the second half, but even then, we played too slow."

The Sun Devils were able to get seven shots off on offense in the second half, but could not get the ball past Team Mexico goalkeeper Sophia Perez.

Boyd said that he hopes his players will take things from Team Mexico and add it into their game.

"Hopefully there's some confidence that comes with 'OK, we just played another country, and we lost 3-0, but we played them pretty tough,'" he said.

Boyd also said he liked that his team was exposed to the atmosphere of an international crowd.

"I thought the Mexican-Americans that came out and gave their voices did it in a really exciting, fun way," he said. "An element of the international game that we're still lacking a little is the passion and the excitement that comes out of the fans into a game."

The Sun Devils' loss to the Mexican National Team came on the heels of a 4-3 loss to UCLA the night before.

After ASU was down 2-1 at halftime, the Sun Devils came back to take a 3-2 lead when freshman midfielder Alexandra Elston and sophomore forward Dante Perea both scored. However, UCLA then rallied to score two goals in the final seven minutes to win the game.

ASU's Cochran played goalkeeper for the Bruins because they did not have a keeper with them.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.