ASU women's soccer falls to Kansas

The Arizona State women's soccer team saw its two-game winning streak to start the season come to an end on Sunday as it fell to Kansas 1-0 at the Lady Vol Classic in Knoxville, Tenn. ASU drops to 2-1 on the season while Kansas improved to 3-0.

After playing an exhausting game on Friday in which it defeated Tennessee 3-2 in double overtime, ASU was unable to generate any kind of sustained attack against the Jayhawks.

"We didn't put the effort in from the first minute," ASU head coach Kevin Boyd said following the game. "One of the things we have been working on is starting games fast and we didn't do that. Be it tired legs, on the road, whatever it was doesn't matter. We need to show up with the same mentality every time we play. We did not do that.

"I thought that Kansas played very well. They moved the ball quickly, they contested for it, they were very good on the ball. I thought they were quite technical on the ball. My complaint is with our team's effort today. I did not think we brought it. That's not what we are trying to build."

Although neither team scored in the first half, the Jayhawks were able to create more opportunities as they took the first five shots and held an 11-4 advantage at the end of the half. One factor affecting the Sun Devils' play on the field was the absence of senior midfielder Carly Kallas, who left the game with an injury after only 10 minutes.

The only score of the game came as a result of an `own goal' by ASU in the 56th minute.

"That goal was building for awhile," Boyd said. "I don't blame Katie Shepard who it ultimately went off because she was really working hard to do anything to stop it. The problem was poor defending and poor tracking of players, just arriving late again. They got in behind us, slotted a hard, crisp ball by our keeper and Katie was sliding back to block it and blocked it into the goal."

While the Sun Devils outshot the Jayhawks 9-5 in the second half, they were not able to create the same kind of dangerous scoring threats they did on Friday night.

The Sun Devils return to action next week when they host the Sun Devil Desert Classic, which will also include Arizona, Old Dominion and Virginia. The weekend of action begins on Friday when Arizona plays Virginia at 4:30 p.m. followed by ASU hosting Old Dominion at 7 p.m. On Sunday Arizona faces Old Dominion at 11 a.m. followed by the Sun Devils taking on Virginia at 1:30 p.m. All of the action will take place at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium in Tempe.

NOTE: Liz Harkin, Courtney Tinnin and Karin Volpe were named to the Lady Vol Classic All-Tournament Team.