UA sophomore Gianna Christiansen scored her first college goal in the Wildcats’ 2-1 loss to Utah on Sept. 23.
Despite the loss, which was the Wildcats’ eighth in their last 11 Pac-12 openers, Christiansen was able to take away some positives.
Touching upon her 13th-minute goal, Christiansen said: “I was definitely excited, it definitely didn’t feel real, but I think that I was given a great opportunity and I took it ... it was definitely a good goal and a good start.”
Christiansen and the Wildcats must stay hot offensively if the UA is to replace the offensive production of program legend Jill Aguilera.
Aguilera, who now takes the pitch for both the Chicago Red Stars and Puerto Rico’s National Team, set the program record with 34 career goals in her record 92 matches.
The Wildcats can replace Aguilera’s scoring, Christiansen said, by being more aggressive on offense. The UA is averaging just 0.89 goals per game this season, worst in the Pac-12 by a large margin; Oregon State is 11th with 1.3 goals per game. In conference play, Arizona’s goals-per-game average drops to 0.5 — though it’s a small sample size.
“(Aguilera) pretty much scored all of our goals, so I think that I have a bigger responsibility,” she said. “I knew I needed to make a bigger impact, and be a better driving force as an offensive player for us.” .
Christiansen knows her personal growth works hand in hand with that of the team. The Wildcats are off to an 0-2 start in league play, losing to Utah before getting blanked Thursday night by No. 19 Stanford, 2-0.
However, the record may be misleading. Arizona and Stanford were tied 0-0 at halftime after the Wildcats played what coach Becca Moros called “the best half of soccer we’ve played all season.”
“If we want to be the team that we think we can be and that we know we can be, every half has to be like that,” Moros told ArizonaWildcats.com. “We finished the game very strong; we had energy, we had legs and we were fighting.”
The UA (3-4-2 overall, 0-2 Pac-12) will take on Cal (5-3-3, 0-2) on Sunday afternoon at Mulcahy Stadium. The match will start at noon.
“I think that our coaches and us have done an amazing job with recruits and recruiting,” Christiansen said. “I would say the even bigger goal is to win the (NCAA) Tournament at the end of the day.”
