The Arizona Wildcats and UC Irvine Anteaters got their seasons underway with an exhibition match on Wednesday evening. The hosts controlled possession but neither team found the back of the net in a scoreless draw at Anteater Stadium.
UCI had possession of the ball 75 percent of the time in the opening half. It followed with a 73 percent advantage in possession time during the second half. The Anteaters kept it in the attacking third 89 percent of the time in each half.
Head coach Becca Moros has a lot
of new faces this season, but only two of them got into the starting lineup. The Wildcats started with junior Sofia Cortes-Browne in goal. The starting back line consisted of returners Zoe Mendiola, Aranda Hurge, and Marissa Arnst. Midfielders included returner Lily Boydstun and TCU transfer Allyson Brown.
The rest of the starting 11 were all listed as forwards on the stat sheet, although many are classified as midfielders on Arizona’s online roster. Ole Miss transfer Grace Smith was joined by returners Mireya Stephenson, Jessica Bedolla, Ella Weathersby, and Whitney Reinhardt.
Scoring is the biggest area of improvement Arizona needs to make this season. It wasn’t in the offing for either team during their first time facing an opponent.
Arizona took eight shots with two on goal. Six of the Wildcats’ shots came in the second half.
The players who had the most success getting shots off did not start. Kyleigh Johnson had two of Arizona’s eight shots, putting one on goal, despite playing just 28 minutes off the bench. Only two players played less than she did. She tied fellow reserve Emerson Stoft for the team high in shots, although Stoft played 17 more minutes than Johnson.
TCU transfer Lainey Swanson was the only other Wildcat to put a shot on goal. She took just one shot in her 42 minutes, but she forced Irvine’s goalkeeper to make the save.
Despite dominating time of possession and spending almost 90 percent of their possession time in or around the box, UCI took just seven shots. Four of those were on goal.
As suggested by the amount of time they spent in their attacking third, the Anteaters also dominated the corner kick game. They took eight corner kicks to just four by the Wildcats.
Arizona’s defense fouled often, drawing 23 whistles compared to 12 for Irvine.
In addition to the starting 11, the Wildcats got time from 10 reserves. That group included former UC Irvine goalkeeper Laurynn Ziller, who transferred to Arizona in the offseason. She was one of six newcomers to take the field for the Wildcats.
Arizona plays its first regular season game when it travels to Phoenix to face GCU on Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. MST.
