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Arizona State (4-6-2, 1-2-1 Pac-12) fell to the top team in the country, UCLA (11-0-1, 4-0-0 Pac-12), by a score of 3-0 on Thursday night at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
After losing 6-0 to No. 2 Stanford on Sunday, the Sun Devils looked better against No. 1 UCLA.
ASU played stout defense in the first half, including when Angela Boyle, the Sun Devils’ defender cleared a ball that got past Nikki Panas, ASU’s goalkeeper.
Their only blemish of the first half was when Hailie Mace of UCLA scored the first goal of the game from the top of the box to give the Bruins the 1-0 lead in the 19th minute for her 10th goal of the season.
In the second half, UCLA piled on to its lead pretty quickly when the Bruins were awarded a penalty kick in the 53rd minute. Mace finished her second goal of the game on the PK to double their lead. Less than a minute later, UCLA added an insurance goal after Anika Rodriguez scored her first goal of the season by burying one into the net off a deflection.
Although Arizona State lost the game 3-0, there was improvement from last game against Stanford. The Sun Devils were unable to register a shot on target last Sunday but fired four on target on Thursday night. Panas also played well for ASU as she made six saves on nine shots total.
The Sun Devils play on Sunday at 1 p.m. against No. 6 USC at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium. This will be another tough test for Arizona State, as it is its fourth straight top-15 matchup, all in conference play.