San Diego State women’s lacrosse lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils, 17-9, on March 17 at Snapdragon Stadium.
The game was the start of Pac-12 Conference play for SDSU (1-9, 0-1 Pac-12) after a run of non-conference games culminated in a 20-8 loss to Dartmouth.
The Aztecs started off well, keeping pace with ASU (5-4, 1-0) through the first quarter. SDSU goalkeeper Caitlin Boughton made crucial saves in the face of heavy ASU pressure to keep the deficit at 3-2 going into the second quarter.
“She played outstanding,” said head coach Kylee White. “Our goalie making — I don’t even know how many saves she made — but like 10 in the first quarter. That really helped us gain some confidence.”
The second quarter provided SDSU with its only lead of the game as the Aztecs slotted five goals past the Sun Devils defense.
Jenna McDermott and Frankie Garcia scored twice each, while Sara Toner found the back of the net to snag her second of three goals on the day. The Aztecs led early in the quarter, but ASU came back late to pull the score to 7-7 before the half.
“I think we showed that we can really hold our own against these Pac 12 teams,” Toner said. “And that’s a game that we can win, so next time we run into ASU, we won’t be losing.”
Coming out of the half, ASU capitalized on a foul-prone SDSU team to pull away and gain an 11-8 lead aided by back-to-back scores by Shannon Urey. SDSU picked up 10 fouls in the quarter after only picking up 12 in the first half.
“I think definitely there were some calls that shifted our momentum and we can’t really let that happen,” Toner said. “We’re still trying, but we didn’t have it our way enough.”
The fourth quarter came with another 15 foul calls against the Aztecs, a total of 37 over the game and 25 in the second half. A final Aztec goal by Emma Betts was little consolation as the Sun Devils put together a four-goal run to end the game and hand the Aztecs an opening loss in the Pac-12.
“We’re finding it’s really hard to show up each game and not know what’s going to be called,” White said. “I think the inconsistency of the calls, we were playing a very clean game and I thought that we played consistent throughout the game, but apparently the officials felt otherwise.”
The Aztecs travel to face off against UC Davis on Saturday, March 23 to continue their Pac-12 play.
