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Wildcats gain momentum from prosperous weekend

Scott Andrew Taras Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore and goalkeeper Shannon Monti, dives for a save in an earlier game this season. Monti stopped 15 saves in the Wildcats' 3-1 loss at Brigham Young on Monday.

Before their games last weekend against Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Brigham Young University, the UA women's soccer team was not sure how they would fare against the upper-echelon women's soccer teams.

After beating Wisconsin-Milwaukee 3-2, holding their own against No. 11 BYU and barely losing to the Cougars 3-1, the Wildcats are feeling good about themselves.

The game with the Panthers, though sloppy, was fought in a very hard manner and showed the toughness of this year's team.

"I don't think we played great soccer that day, but we all pulled it out and won the game," UA head coach Lisa Fraser said.

The game was highlighted by sophomore forward Kim McGehee's game-winning overtime goal.

"We are all very happy," sophomore midfielder Tiffany Sabado said. "We all thought we did a really awesome job, especially against BYU."

The Wildcats were able to take the momentum from their victory over the Panthers and translate it into their strongest game of the year.

Facing a Cougars team that had blown away its competition leading up to the UA game, the Wildcats refused to go easy.

"We played great against BYU, and they beat Northwestern, who is ranked in the top 25, 8-2," Fraser said.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead off junior forward Chrissy Sanford's unassisted goal in the opening minute and held strong.

"We did a good job and we played for 90 minutes," Fraser said. "They didn't score their last two goals till seven minutes left."

The defense was outstanding for the Wildcats as they clamped down on the Cougars and forced them to take far shots.

Even more impressively, the UA defense was able to hold BYU All-American senior forward Maren Hendershot pointless.

Sophomore goalkeeper Shannon Monti was also outstanding as she stopped 15 saves against a powerful Cougar offense which set a school-record for shots at 39.

"We pressured quicker, we just didn't get a lot of chances to go offensively and when we did, we scored," Fraser said. "It is a good confidence boost, we played with one of the best teams in the country."

After looking at the game film, Fraser thought her team played well but had to work on getting more wide runs to help open up the UA's offensive attack.

"We are forcing the ball too much; we have to go wide and keep better possession," Fraser said. "I think we did a better job against BYU, but I think we got to pressure quicker."