The No. 20 women's soccer team returned from the Seminole Nike Classic on Sunday with a record of 1-1 to open its 2004-2005 season.
In its season opener, played Friday night, the Sun Devils were edged by No. 5 Florida State 3-2. Junior midfielder Manya Makoski gave ASU an early lead, scoring only 1:09 into the contest off an assist from sophomore midfielder Katie Mahoney.
The Sun Devil advantage lasted only four minutes when FSU midfielder Camie Bybee scored a rare goal with a header from a long throw in pass. ASU head coach Ray Leone described the shot as "one of the weirdest I've ever seen."
The Seminoles took the outright lead in the 36th minute when midfielder Julia Schnugg weaved through the Sun Devil defense and scored on a pass from forward Leah Gallegos.
Leone said the game exposed some holes in his team's defense around the goal.
"A brand new backfield together, trying to work through some things and an experienced player just slipped it through," he said.
ASU looked to enter halftime tied when Mahoney missed her attempt from the top of the box high off the FSU crossbar, and the Sun Devils were unable to collect the ball to make a second attempt.
FSU padded its lead 3-1 in the 53rd minute with another goal by Schnugg off a long lob from Kelly Rowland.
All three goals were scored by two of the three players that Leone said, earlier in the week, his team would have to work hard to contain. He said he would try to implement a "help defense" that would use everyone on the team to try and stop Bybee, Schnugg and Gallegos.
"(Stephanie) Peel and Holly (Azevedo) really did a great job leading our defense," he said. "But we still have a lot of work to do on communicating with each other in that aspect of our game."
In another close call for the FSU defense during the 77th minute, Makoski tried to add her second goal of the game only to watch goalkeeper Joy McKenzie make a diving one-handed stop.
The Sun Devils finally stopped FSU's scoring run four minutes later when junior forward Elizabeth Bogus drilled a shot into the lower left corner of the goal.
Riding their momentum with three seconds remaining, sophomore forward Courtney Crane unleashed a bullet into the FSU net, but McKenzie was able to extend just far enough to deflect the shot off her fingers and hand the Sun Devils an opening-day loss.
"It was one of those games where, even though we lost, we felt good at the end," Leone said. "You never like to lose, but we felt like we put up a heck of a fight against a team that is about as good as you get."
Going into the game Leone was clear that win or lose, it would be used primarily as a learning experience.
"The main thing we drew from the Florida State game was implement a solid rhythm of play," he said. "When you have a rhythm everyone's having fun, everyone's engaged and we need to focus being consistent in that aspect."
Two days later, against Rhode Island, in their second game of the four-team tournament, the Sun Devils took their lessons from FSU and trounced the Rams 4-0.
Running hard out of the gates, the Sun Devils took control of the game, scoring three goals in an 11-minute span during the first half by Bogus, Makoski and junior midfielder Brittany Cooper respectively.
At the half, the shot total was an impressive 15-3 in ASU's favor, a testament to their early game intensity.
The Sun Devils then put a victory for Rhode Island far out of reach as they scored another goal in the second half, which was credited to junior-college transfer and two-time first team all-American junior Katie Leahy.
Senior goalkeeper Kelly Fitzgerald made five saves to earn her 11th career shutout.
"It was a great opportunity, we got the chance to play every player and our attacking chances were great," Leone said. "It was a really nice result and I think we showed good finesse. I don't doubt we made a good impression in Tallahassee last weekend."
ASU looks to win two in a row when they travel to Provo, Utah, to take on Brigham Young on Friday, Sept. 4, at 5 p.m.
Reach the reporter at jason.samuels@asu.edu.
