TEMPE, Ariz. (August 16, 2024) – Northern Arizona Soccer (0-0-1) took a strong start to the 2024 campaign, picking up a 1-1 draw at Big-12 opponent Arizona State (0-0-1) on Friday night.
Zoe Ballard,
Rece Grant,
Valerie Llamas, and
Ella Freebury all made their first career starts for the Lumberjacks in Friday night's season opener.
"It was a great result against a very good power-four team," head coach
Alan Berrios said. "The team bought into the game plan and executed it perfectly, we knew coming in we needed to be organized and disciplined to get a good result and we did just that."
Despite a slow start to the match, including a 20
th-minute goal for Kierra Blundell and the Sundevils, the Lumberjacks held tight with ASU before
Deniah Wells and
Micala Boex would check in for NAU, shifting the momentum for some offensive opportunity for the Jacks.
Wells and Boex took the pitch in the 23
rd minute of play, the first time in the Lumberjack uniform for both as injuries benched the two during the 2023 season. Boex would create back-to-back set piece chances for the Jacks, while putting the first shot on goal for NAU in the match.
The Lumberjacks returned to the pitch ready to attack in the second half, putting three shots on goal in the first fifteen minutes while controlling possession quickly. Proving to have no quit in them, NAU continued to push for an equalizer as
Avery Ott would initialize the play in the 82nd minute to
Deniah Wells who took advantage of ASU's keeper coming off the line. Wells' goal marks her fifth collegiate goal and first-ever with Northern Arizona while Ott tabbed her third-career assist.
NAU held 56.0 percent possession throughout the match, sending five of nine shots on target while holding the Sundevils to seven shots on goal.
Trinity Corcoran picked up six saves, marking the most for the senior keeper in a season opener. Boex led the Jacks in shots with three total as
Katie Willoughby trailed with two. Corcoran,
Olivia Bos,
Holly Hunter, and
Joey Lujan recorded 90 minutes in tonight's match.
"They have been working hard in preseason and it paid off tonight, we still have a long way to go but I trust we will continue to put in the hard work in order to be ready for conference play," Berrios said.
The Lumberjacks will take on another in-state foe in the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday, Aug. 22 before hosting Pennsylvania in the home opener on Aug. 29. To stay up to date with NAU Soccer, follow the Jacks on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
