The Wildcats even their record in Big 12 play
It wasn’t the easiest weather for a soccer match. Heavy wind and rain made the grass slick and passes unpredictable, but the Arizona Wildcats fought through the final whistle to take the 1-0 victory over UCF and improve to 1-1-0 in Big 12 play.
“The weather is something that we’re gonna have to deal with as well as the other team,” said sophomore forward Aurora Gaines. “So it’s not a disadvantage having to deal with it. It’s just keeping a level head as a team and keeping moving forward, and I think we did a great job.”
The Wildcats dropped their first Big 12 match at Iowa State last week by allowing a goal with less than 12 minutes to go. Earlier this week, both head coach Becca Moros and senior midfielder Sami Baytosh said they felt they played a better game than their opponent, but they didn’t get the win they needed. This time, they got the result.
“We’ve talked about the fact that we’ve out played teams and lost again, and so it’s not about the quality of our football or the way we believe in what we’re doing, but we got to find something more in here, in our hearts, and something more to be better and more competitive, so that we can come out on top,” Moros said after defeating the Knights. “Because if you’re playing better football than people, and they’re just outscoring you and out competing you, then you can change the football around, but you might just make that worse. Also, the end of the day, you got to find something inside to bring your game up to a better quality.”
They didn’t change things too much, but Arizona did make some changes to the football late in the match. It was primarily the call of goalkeeper Olivia Ramey, according to Moros. Conditions played into it, but it was also something they did after falling behind the Cyclones late in last week’s game.
“We did it at the end of Iowa State because we were trying to push, just create a little chaos and get some opportunities,” Moros said. “It’s hard to do that for a whole game when you’re playing for first and second balls and then you’re just chasing, so sometimes later in the game, it’s a really good tactic. It was very windy today and the ground was slick, so they made the decision that they wanted to play out. We did go over it this week. So we were better structured, better able to compete on the first and the second balls.”
Ramey and her teammates decided that she would play a more direct ball out of the back instead of building. The other 10 fell back to midfield to fight for it.
“We decided if they were gonna hard press, we weren’t gonna really try to deal with it, try and build out of the back,” Ramey said. “Play smart, because a lot of times when we get scored on, it’s from the build out, because we play around too much in the back with it. So we just kind of collectively decided we’re gonna fight for the ball in the air today.”
Moros was willing to listen to her players and let them make the adjustments they felt they needed to make, especially given the weather and field conditions.
“I think Liv just made a decision early that she didn’t want to get caught and we wanted to see how they were pressing,” Moros said. “So, okay, we’ll bypass that. She built out and played on a few of them, but she made the decision to play longer. We were competing really well. So once we were winning all the first balls, or seven out of 10, and you feel pretty good about it, and we’re competing well on seconds, as well. But the wind was a big factor, I think, and the surface. So if they felt comfortable playing longer, we’re good with that. Now, if we were losing every longer ball, then we got to find what’s working.”
Arizona worked on the offense extensively this week. The Wildcats still had some difficulties. In the first half, their best chances came off overly aggressive Knights’ defenders.
In the fifth minute, midfielder Rose Calkins was taken down on the very edge of the box. Another step and she would have had a penalty kick. Arizona wasn’t able to convert on the set piece and had just four shots in the first half.
Another aggressive defensive play did eventually come back to haunt UCF. Gaines got fouled in the 43rd minute. This time it was in the box, so she jumped up and took the penalty kick. It went off the lower left post and into the net.
“Another thing that our coaches have been harping on are runs in the boxes by the forwards,” Gaines said. “So I was just making a run, and the ball slipped through. Nine times out of 10, maybe it’s not gonna slip through, but the ball slipped through. She tried to get it. She missed it by like an inch. I was just there, and then I saw the weak side defender. She was coming in hard. So, I took the contact.”
The Wildcats just needed to make that 1-0 advantage stand. Moros felt that they started to flag in the second half. In the 63rd minute, she put Calkins and Whitney Reinhardt into the game. Two minutes later, in came forward Jessica Bedolla. Bedolla’s offensive pressure helped turn the game back in Arizona’s favor.
“We had completely lost our way,” Moros said. “So, the first three subs of the second half did an outstanding job, kind of moving the momentum back to us, because we did not have it for what, I don’t know, 15, 18, whatever the minutes were that it took us to get them in. The ball didn’t go out for a while, so we were standing with them on the sideline, trying to get them in the game.”
Up Next for Arizona Soccer
Oklahoma State Cowgirls (4-4-2) @ Arizona Wildcats (6-4)
When: Sunday, Sept. 28 @ 11 a.m. MST
Where: Mulcahy Soccer Stadium in Tucson, Ariz.
Streaming:ESPN+
Stats:Arizona Live Stats
Bedolla took her role head-on.
“If you come off the bench into the game, you want to give it your all, for all that you can,” Bedolla said. “And so I try to bring that energy and hopefully uplifted everybody else.”
Moros also saw Bedolla use parts of her game that the coaches have been trying to coax out of her.
“She has different strengths than the other players,” Moros said. “So when she comes in, her hold up play is really good, her press timing is really, really good. And what we had gotten on her a little bit about was competing in the space in behind. And she did that. When she got in, she held players, she made runs in behind. She’s been kind of getting into the habit of only doing the hold up part, but she’s very good at spinning players, timing the balance, and she adjusted really well to stuff we asked her to do this week.”
Having an entire week between matches gave the coaches and players the time to work and face some facts.
“I think we were really upset last week with the dropping the game to Iowa State, and we knew we had a big week of practice ahead this week to turn it around,” Ramey said. “So had a big week of practice this week. We were going hard. We were not easy. Our coaches were not easy on us, because we knew we needed to turn it around. We were hard on each other. Our team motto this year is all-in. So we all have a word that applies to that, and we really focused on it, and knew that we wanted to get this game back and turn our Big 12 season round, since we still have so many games left. And I think we did that, and we were really excited.”
The win should help Arizona in RPI as well as the Big 12 standings. The Wildcats came in ranked No. 86 in RPI while UCF was No. 21. They get another chance to help their case when No. 35 Oklahoma State comes to town on Sunday. The Cowgirls played Arizona State to a scoreless draw on Thursday.
Category: General Sports
