Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Soccer team comes away with weekend sweep

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore midfielder Twila Kaufman runs over Wyoming's midfielder Anne Maddock during the Wildcats' 3-1 victory yesterday. The Wildcats are riding a school-best three-game winning streak after this weekend's two victories.

Things are looking bright for the UA women's soccer team as they head in to Pacific 10 Conference play this week.

Coming off victories this past weekend over Pepperdine and Wyoming, the Wildcats (6-4-0 overall, 0-1-0 Pac-10) have tied a school record with a three-game winning streak.

"I think this is probably the best soccer that we have ever done, technical and tactically-wise," freshman defender Naomi Chu said. "We were all getting up to those 50-50 balls, we are going in hard every single time, we are moving the ball."

UA started their strong weekend off with a tough 1-0 victory over Pepperdine (4-3-1 overall).

The victory was capped by junior goalkeeper Inger Airheart's first shutout of the year.

"It felt good to get a shutout for the first time this year and hopefully there's a lot more to come this year," Airheart said. "We played really well. We played with a lot of heart. At the end it got very, very stressful, but nobody lapsed. Everybody played hard the whole way through. It was very impressive."

Airheart made 10 saves and played exceptionally strong in the second half as the Wildcats played lackadaisical, after clearly dominating the Waves in the first half.

Scoring the lone goal for UA was sophomore forward Kristi Lorona.

Lorona's goal was set up by junior forward Chrissy Sanford, who deflected a shot off Pepperdine goalkeeper Lindsey Brouillette and straight to Lorona.

The goal was Lorona's first of the season and Sanford's fourth assist of the year, increasing her team leading point-total to 18 points.

In the second game against Wyoming, Sanford furthered her point-total by seven (25 total) after racking up two goals and an assist in the Wildcats 3-1 victory.

Sanford was very satisfied with the results of the weekend.

"It went very well. Pepperdine was the game that we needed to come out on top, and today we just needed to keep it together and not make any stupid mistakes," she said. "We played like a team this weekend and it's starting to come together."

The Wildcats nearly recorded their third shutout in a row, but the Cowgirls scored a meaningless goal in the 80th-minute as junior forward Kelly McShane blasted a shot past Airheart.

Airheart's dominance in the net continued against Wyoming (2-8-1 overall) as she faced 15 shots and lead a stingy Wildcat defense.

When asked what she thought of the weekend, Airheart said, "good weekend all together, glad we got two big wins because now we start Pac-10, and now it's a real test."

Airheart's leadership was especially noticeable to UA head coach Lisa Fraser.

"It's what we really need, we needed someone to do it, and she did it," Fraser said.

The Wildcats other goal came from sophomore midfielder Tiffany Sabado, who put a beautiful cross from Sanford into the back of the net.

"It was an awesome shot that Tiffany took, and that's Tiffany's thing," Fraser said. "If she's in front of the goal, she will do it. She's a very composed player."