TUCSON, Ariz. -- The Arizona State women’s soccer team won its second consecutive game on Friday, defeating Loyola Marymount 3-0 during the first day of play at the Arizona Cats Classic.
Junior midfielder Holland Crook, junior forward Devin Marshall, and senior midfielder Taylor McCarter all scored for the Sun Devils (3-4-1), who had a 27-8 advantage in shots against LMU (5-3-1).
“I didn’t think we were great to be honest” Sun Devil soccer head coach Kevin Boyd said. “The grade we gave ourselves at halftime was somewhere in the (C range), and so it’s a passing grade, but not the grade at which we want to perform. We wanted to be better. In the second half we got a couple of goals and that decided it, but we still weren’t great and we’re still not where we want to be. The nice thing is to not play great and get a win with three goals.”
For the Sun Devils, it’s their second quality win in as many contests, following last week's upset of No. 10 Pepperdine. Loyola Marymount was coming off a 1-1 tie against No. 3 UCLA.
“It’s great for us,” Boyd said. “We talked about what we are about. We are doing this one game at a time, trying to dig ourselves back (from a 1-4-1 start). I’m not going to get too wound up in where we are at other than how are we playing (at the moment), what are we going to play like in the next game, and can we play a little bit better.”
ASU took a 1-0 lead late in the first half, as Crook sent a pass toward Marshall, who beat two LMU defenders to the ball and sent a sliding shot into the net for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
“Devin Marshall proves that she can score on a regular basis,” Boyd said. “She found something out of nothing, which was tremendous.”
Crook scored the first goal of her career on a penalty kick in the 70th minute to make it 2-0, and McCarter scored off of a corner kick less than two minutes later to wrap up the scoring.
“That’s great (for Taylor),” Boyd said. “She does so much for our team. Her getting in the attack and scoring goals is really not the role she plays because she is so far from goal. She is more our playmaker, the one that connects and wins a lot of balls for us. Scoring goals is rare and I’m really happy when she gets them.”
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Chandler Morris made three saves and earned her third shutout of the season.
The Sun Devils return to action on Sunday when they take on Florida International.
