Arizona soccer halts winless streak with victory over Utah

Last year at Utah, the Arizona Wildcats dropped a match where they felt they didn’t represent themselves well. It was something they wanted to rectify this year.

“I think Utah is a little bit of a sticking point for us,” Arizona soccer coach Becca Moros said before the road trip. “And last year, that was kind of one of our worst games of the year. So I know for us it’s been a lot of conversation about kind of righting that wrong—and not in the sense that they weren’t the better team, but in the sense of we weren’t proud of the performance we put out.”

Last year was a 2-1 loss. It was a one-goal difference this year, too, but this time it was in Arizona’s favor. The Wildcats defeated the Utes 1-0 at Ute Soccer Field on Sunday. The win ended an eight-game winless streak when Arizona went 0-6-2.

The lone goal of the game came in the 37th minute. During the game, the goal was credited to both junior Gianna Christiansen (by the Utah scorer) and Nyota Katembo (by Arizona social media) but it was officially an own goal by Utah credited to the Arizona team.

The Arizona defense was able to hang on from there despite an early injury to starter Aranda Hurge, who played less than 25 minutes before going out. She was replaced by senior Sarah Rice and did not return.

Fifth-year goalkeeper Hope Hisey faced 20 shots, the third time in the last four games that she has faced at least 20. Utah put nine of those shots on goal, forcing Hisey to set another season high in saves to keep a clean sheet. She saved seven at Colorado on Thursday.

Arizona was only able to manufacture seven shots. Three of those were on goal.

The Wildcats (5-8-5, 2-6-2) will wind up their season when they host Arizona State on Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at Mulcahy Soccer Stadium.