ASU Soccer: No. 16 Sun Devils bounce back with win over Stanford

Following his team’s first conference loss of the season, Sun Devil coach Graham Winkworth said that there’s not many better opportunities to respond than against Stanford, the defending national champions.

Arizona State (8-2-2, 4-1-2 Pac-12) took advantage of the occasion. Behind a pair of first-half goals from Jazmine Wilkinson and Eva Van Deursen, the Sun Devils beat the Cardinal 2-0 for their first victory over Stanford (5-5-1, 4-3-0) since 2013.

“It’s huge,” Winkworth said. “I’m not sure how many teams in history have beat UCLA, USC, and Stanford in the same season, so for us to do that I am so incredibly proud. The girls keep making me speechless from their efforts and their efforts in practice are unbelievably high and we want to make training harder than games”

Wilkinson, the freshman that scored her first career goal against Cal on Friday, wasted no time in netting her second.

Olivia Nguyen centered the early counter attack before pushing it out wide to Wilkinson on the right side. The Canadian national pushed it past Stanford’s goaltender Katie Meyer in the fifth minute for the goal.

In the 23rd minute, Arizona State struck again. Nicole Douglas had a prime chance in the box but her shot was blocked by a Cardinal defender.

The ball came back out to Van Deursen outside the box. She gave it a strike and delivered a beauty over the top of Meyer into the back of the net.

Stanford took more shots on Sunday, but the Sun Devils had a lot more quality chances. Cori Sullivan and Kiki Stewart were inches away from spectacular scores.

Sullivan put a cross directly on the head of Nguyen, who didn’t quite get enough of it. Winkworth got a lot of quality minutes from Stewart and Sullivan on the wing.

Arizona State’s backline limited any clean shots and contributed to Stanford only having two shots on goal. Giulia Cascapera saved them all. The Cardinal were also caught offsides four times.

ASU heads to the Rocky Mountains for its final regular season road trip on April 9 versus Utah and April 11 against Colorado.