The No. 18 women's soccer team (3-5) dropped both games on its Southern California road trip this weekend, falling 3-0 to UC Santa Barbara Friday (5-4) and then again Sunday to No. 22 Pepperdine (6-2-1) 2-1. The defeats extend ASU's winless streak to three, its longest in two years.
Head coach Ray Leone described his team's effort against Santa Barbara as its worst this season. Both teams entered the second half tied at 0, but the Gauchos were able to string three goals together in the final 36 minutes of play, handing the Sun Devils their second consecutive shutout.
"There's not much more I can say than (UC Santa Barbara) came to play and we just didn't," Leone said. "Embarrassing is the best way to describe our performance."
The Gauchos appeared to control the tempo of the game, despite ASU's effort to stay close through the first period, and they amassed 12 shots in just the second, dwarfing the Sun Devils' game total of eight.
"We definitely did not overlook this team," Leone said. "Whoever is first to the ball is going to be the best team and they were first to the ball."
Defensively ASU took a stand but the offense was never able to create any momentum for itself even with a solid defensive performance from goalkeeper Kim Bingham, who notched nine saves.
The Sun Devils then traveled south down the Pacific Coast Highway to try and stop the bleeding against Pepperdine.
The team arrived in Malibu looking for vindication and played with the energy that was unexplainably gone in its last game. Again, it went into the second half knotted in a scoreless tie, both teams failing to capitalize on their chances, but this time the Sun Devils broke through when midfielder Katie Mahoney fed the ball to midfielder Manya Makoski. Makoski roped the ball past Waves' goalkeeper Anna Picarelli in the 56th minute of play for her fourth of the year.
What would be the game's deciding play was a penalty called on the Sun Devils when Pepperdine's Jenna Fodor was given a penalty kick on a controversial defensive play that Leone said he would have expected to result in a corner kick. Regardless, Fodor capitalized on the opportunity and tied the game at 1 in the 68th minute.
"I hate to sound like I'm crying over spilled milk, but they should not have tied us because of that," Leone said.
The Sun Devils remained resilient, but the Waves were able to land another shot into the net with just three minutes to play.
"The turnaround was about as good as anyone could have hoped for and it is really disappointing that we were not able to come home with a win," Leone said.
He added that a focal point in practice will be consistency, most notably putting two good halves together after losing two close games near the 90-minute mark in a two-week span.
"We still haven't been able to play a complete game like I know we are capable of," he said.
The Sun Devils return home to face San Diego State (3-4-2) Friday and then hit the road once again to take on UNLV (5-2-2) Sunday.
Reach the reporter at jason.samuels@asu.edu.
