Freshmen Nicole Douglas and Cori Sullivan did all the scoring Thursday night in Arizona State soccer’s season-opening 3-1 home win over Montana.

The match began more than 1 1/2 hours late due to a storm and had another one-hour delay due to lightning in the first half.

Douglas, from England, scored twice in her college debut while Sullivan of Prescott scored the only second-half goal and assisted on Douglas’ first goal.

ASU had a 21-10 edge in shots and 11-6 in shots on goal. Sydney Day was the winning goalie in her first career start.

Montana fell to 0-3. 

ASU next hosts the Sun Devil Desert Classic with matches against New Hampshire on Aug. 31 and Southeast Missouri on Sept. 2.

ASU 2018-19 athletic season begins with unexpected home soccer match

Arizona State’s 2018-19 athletic season begins Thursday with an unexpected home soccer game.

Because of the potential impact of Hurricane Lane, ASU is not traveling to Hawaii for two matches and instead opening against Montana at 7 p.m. Thursday at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium. 

ASU originally was to have played Hawaii on Friday and Montana on Sunday in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational. Montana is 0-2 (losses to Fresno State and San Francisco) while ASU went 2-0-1 in exhibition play.

ASU, with an 18-player recruiting class, is hoping for a quick turnaround from a 5-11-3 season under second-year coach Graham Winkworth. The newcomers include five international players, two coming off the U20 World Cup, and transfer Casey Martinez from Duke.

“We’re got a lot of depth in this squad,”  Winkworth said last Saturday after a 10-0 win over Federation of University Sports of China. “I’m six days away from the first game of the season and I feel like six months away from picking the first 11. It’s a good headache. There’s competition all over the field.”

Midfielder/forward Jemma Purfield, in her second season at ASU, will certainly be among the starters and looking to build on her team-leading six goals/15 points. She found out later that she was playing in 2017 despite having mononucleosis.

“It’s exciting having so much depth and so much potential,” said Purfield of additions that include forward Nicole Douglas, who like Purfield and Winkworth is from England.

Purfield and Douglas were among nine players who scored against the Chinese team and junior forward Christina Edwards had two goals. 

Purfield will miss time with ASU while playing for England’s U23 team at the Nordic tournament in Norway, which begins next week.

Soccer also is at home against New Hampshire on Aug. 31 and Southeast Missouri on Sept. 2. 

ASU Volleyball

ASU volleyball also opens at home this weekend under second-year coach Sanja Tomasevic. 

The Sun Devils play twice Friday at Wells Fargo Arena against UT Arlington at 11 a.m. and New Mexico State at 7 p.m. then face Pacific at 7 p.m. Saturday.

ASU was 10-2 in non-conference in 2017 only to go winless (0-20) in Pac-12 play, a black hole that Tomasevic and her players are anxious to escape.   

The Sun Devils have 10 returners including setter Shelbie Dobmeier, outside hitter Ivana Jeremic and middle blocker Carmen Unzue. There are six newcomers including OH Alyse Ford, a transfer from USC, and middle blocker Avital Jaloba from Israel. 

Volleyball has a second home tournament on Sept. 14-15 with Northern Arizona, Gonzaga and Texas State in the field. 

Etc.

In 2017-18, ASU finished 31st in the Directors’ Cup, a measure of overall athletic success, its best finish since 30th in 2014-15. Arizona won the 2017-18 Territorial Cup Series, 11-10, ending a four-year undisputed run by ASU.

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