This article was originally published on March 28, 2023.
The Arizona State Sun Devils (8-9) wrapped up their four game homestand Sunday and looked to continue their win streak against a team who had not lost this season in the Stanford Cardinal (15-0).
The Sun Devils appeared to be in for a good game as the score was 2-2 just three minutes into the first quarter. However, the Sun Devils quickly became outmatched and it was clear that Stanford came ready to play going up 7-3 after the first quarter.
The second quarter was more of the same from Stanford dominating offensively, putting up five more goals and blanking ASU in the quarter to go up 12-3 at half.
There were a few bright spots on the day for ASU as freshman center Sophie Shorter-Robinson and graduate student attacker Tina Doherty each potted two goals in Sunday’s match.
“We had a talk at half about coming together as a team, we base a lot of our team on togetherness and that’s something we’ve been working on just holding each other accountable for our mistakes,” Doherty said.
Stanford was once again in control of the third quarter, putting up an additional six goals. However, their offensive show stopped there as ASU was able to stop the bleeding in the fourth quarter.
The Sun Devils struggled defensively the entire game but tightened some things up in the second half, shutting out Stanford in the fourth quarter.
Stanford was able to dominate the attacking area in front of the goal for most of the game while boxing out ASU on the defensive side by only allowing perimeter shots.
“Our offense was a bit more controlled in the second half which resulted in less counter attack goals and counter opportunities for Stanford,” ASU coach Petra Pardi said. “The goal differential in the second half compared to the first half was that we were more controlled in our offense and didn’t cause a lot of dumb turnovers.”
Going against an Olympian on the other side did not make things easier for the Sun Devils as redshirt senior center Aria Fischer came into Sunday’s contest with a team leading 41 goals and 21 assists through only 14 games played.
“We’re playing against an Olympian center so seeing how she plays and everything it just makes me want to adjust my performance better,” Doherty said.
ASU tried to turn the momentum around by calling some timeouts early in the game. However, it did not seem to work in their favor as Stanford continued ramping up the pressure.
“We were mostly trying to correct defensive mistakes that had to be addressed because those are all things we have looked at on video over the week,” ASU coach Petra Pardi said. “We were not making the quarter brake adjustment that we had talked about so I felt like I had to take the timeout to re-emphasize those points to make sure we didn’t keep making those mistakes.”
What gave the Sun Devils the most problems throughout the game was the pressure that Stanford generated on defense, not giving ASU any time or space to make decisions.
“I think we struggled with circling the ball around like we’ve been working on releasing and holding position and I think just getting that ball under center we struggled with in the first half but I think we did a better job of it in the second half,” freshman center Sophie Shorter-Robinson said.
The Sun Devils will look to get things back on track on the road against Indiana on Saturday who are coming off of a dominant performance of their own against Whittier.
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