UA soccer team springs forward in weekend victories

The Wildcats (last season 3-12-2 overall, 0-7-2 Pacific 10 Conference) hosted a spring opening tournament in which they defeated Northern Arizona 3-1 Saturday and New Mexico 2-1 yesterday, with a loss in between yesterday morning to Utah 2-1.

"I think, overall, there's just been an attitude change for me," McManus said. "I just went out there this weekend with a positive outlook and winning attitude."

McManus worked her winning attitude and magic in the Wildcats' first game with a hat trick, and finished yesterday with another goal against New Mexico. She also added assists to sophomore forward Marisa Padulaís, who proved her days on the sidelines are over after missing the two previous seasons after knee surgeries with two goals against Utah and New Mexico.

"We've never had a big offensive threat," McManus said. "So now that's my goal- to score. We need to score to achieve a winning season.

"Marisa is also a great compliment and addition to our offensive threat."

The Wildcats started the tournament a little shaky with an early 1-0 deficit in the game against NAU, but by the second half they got their rhythm going and came back to seal the game with three unanswered goals.

"For the past three months we've been training hard," UA sophomore defender Elena Galvan said. "So we came out ready to play, but we were just a little shaky at first."

Unfortunately, their play did not carry over to yesterday's morning game, where a breakdown on defense led to a quick lead for Utah.

The Wildcats did recover in time to tie the score at one point, but when Utah pulled ahead a second time, Arizona had nothing left to catch up with.

"We had the chances," Galvan said. "But we just weren't getting any balls in the net."

The loss to Utah did, however, serve as the spark that got the Wildcats back into the tournament atmosphere in their last game, she added.

"Overall, our team was pretty pleased with the weekend, I think," Galvan said. "We should have beaten Utah, but we came out hard for New Mexico and were pumped for next weekend."

The Wildcats travel to New Mexico next weekend to continue their spring tournament schedule.

Kate Longworth can be reached at Kate.Longworth@wildcat.arizona.edu