Volpe ties school record to lead soccer sweep over Nebraska
Karin Volpe tied a school record with three goals as the Arizona State women's soccer team ran its unbeaten streak to start the season to six games (5-0-1) with a 5-0 win over Nebraska on Sunday as a part of the Sun Devil Desert Classic.
Combined with their four goals in the second half of Friday's 4-2 win over Tennessee, the Sun Devils have now scored nine goals in their last three halves of action.
"We have a very dangerous attacking team and it is starting to show up," ASU head coach Kevin Boyd said following the game. "The system matchup [today] was an interesting one and the advantage to us was our center midfield. If our mids connected and ran at their backline then we would expose them constantly in a difficult, four-on-four position and that's what we did. We started creating chances coming at them out of that position and when we got our chances we stuck them away."
Sunday's game was a 180-degree turnaround from last season when ASU and Nebraska (5-2-0) played to a 1-1 tie in Lincoln, Neb. While the Sun Devils are a much-improved team from a year ago, Boyd also attributed the difference in the two games to the home-field environment.
"We are definitely a better team this year," Boyd said. "But you can't discount the home advantage and the advantage they had when we were at their place - they have a really small field, which suits their style and makes it difficult to play. We have a big field, it's hot out and that suits our style."
For Volpe, who was named the MVP of the Sun Devil Desert Classic, the three goals were a career high after scoring two goals in a single game on four prior occasions.
"I'm thrilled with her," Boyd said. "I knew she was going to have a good year this year. She had a tremendous spring and she has looked good for quite some time. She has found her scorer's touch. If she gets a ball in the box she is going to have an excellent chance of putting it away."
And put it away she did, beginning in the ninth minute when she took a pass from Alexandra Elston and drilled a shot into the lower left corner to put ASU up 1-0.
The Sun Devils would extend their lead to 2-0 later in the first half after Devin Marshall made contact with a ball sent into the box, setting up Elston who got the ball through traffic and into the net.
ASU would go ahead 3-0 four minutes prior to the half when redshirt freshman Miah Mollay put away a rebound of teammate Alyssa Freeman's shot
Volpe would add two more goals in the 65th and 69th minutes to make the final total 5-0.
For ASU, its current 5-0-1 record marks the second-longest unbeaten streak to start the season in school history. The only ASU team to have a longer streak was the 2000 squad, which began the season 9-0-0.
The Sun Devils return to action next week when they travel to Tucson, Ariz., to compete in a pair of games hosted by the University of Arizona. The Sun Devils will face Oho State on Friday at 5 p.m. PT and Central Florida on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. PT.