Redshirt senior Ao Gao said that she typically expects No. 9 ASU to be ranked in the top-5 at this point in the season. After its victory over No. 5 Michigan on Saturday morning, the Sun Devils may have proved she’s right.
Early in the game, ASU’s pace was extremely fast. Many passes were lofted over the target’s head to give extra momentum while swimming to it, and redshirt sophomore goalie Mia Rycraw had some beautiful lead passes from the box.
As the first quarter wound to a close, senior attacker Daisy Carter threw a Kevin Love-esque outlet pass to a streaking sophomore attacker Lena Mihailovic. She put it away with one second left on the clock, giving ASU a 3-1 lead.
The Sun Devil tempo slowed, though, as they gained a scoring edge. Gao said it allowed Michigan to make a comeback.
“After we were leading, I think the energy was a little down,” she said. “Once we were down, the opponent, they’re like, ‘Okay, we got to go.’”
Michigan got on the board with a rocket from senior attacker Kelly Martin. A one-on-one fast break against Gao ended up resulting in a goal, and Michigan was able to tie the score at 4.
Gao was mad. She said her misplays resulted in two goals.
At the half, ASU led 5-4. Gao said that her emotions fueled her in the second half, in which ASU scored three and held Michigan to only one goal.
“I’m a perfectionist, but if I do something wrong, I’m going to be mad at myself and I’m going to redeem myself,” Gao said.
She finished the game with two goals, an assist and three steals.
The Wolverines average 11 goals per game. Freshman attacker Maud Koopman said they attack the two-meter area while posting up the center frequently on offense. Head coach Todd Clapper said knowing their patterns and making sure the Sun Devils played team defense in the correct places helped stop the drives.
Koopman did a spectacular job down low of getting her hands up to block the ball before it even got to Rycraw, and she had several rejections and four steals.
“We’ve been practicing the whole week… (to) get a lot of hands up all the time and try to help each other,” Koopman said.
In the fourth quarter, the Wolverines had three power play opportunities but were scoreless in each of them. ASU walked away with an 8-5 victory.
“They beat the top teams and we just beat them,” Koopman said. “We can beat good teams and I think that’s awesome for us to prove we can do it.”
In the afternoon, ASU took on Cal Baptist. After the first quarter, the Sun Devils led 2-1. They have outscored opponents 46-17 in the first quarter overall this year.
Cal Baptist’s goalie was coming out of the net often to chase after balls. Initially, it was very effective; while ASU scored one early, senior goalie Meghan Rowland stopped several, including all four shots from senior center Abbey Kerth.
ASU chipped toward a lead, though, and in the third quarter, it began taking a wide range of lob shots.
Mihailovic recorded a hat trick, and sophomore utility player Kayla Casas had two goals of her own. By the fourth quarter, ASU led 8-1, but Mihailovic wasn’t done. She finished the game with five goals and had seven overall in the day.
“We focused on doing slower, high corner lobs,” she said. “(At) the beginning, we were rushing a little bit, we didn’t really know their goalie as well, but by the end we figured out what was working best and we were able to adapt to the game."
The Sun Devils walked away with a 12-2 victory. Mihailovic said the team’s chemistry is improving, helping them score more and defend consistently.
“It’s a big improvement,” she said. “I think this is really good for us to continue our season and step up to the next level before we play top-three teams.”
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