Nicole Dallin is making a habit of putting the Arizona soccer team up early.
But for the second straight game, the Wildcats weren’t able to build on the early lead.
Arizona opened its home slate at Murphey Field and Mulcahy Stadium Thursday night against Grand Canyon with a 1-1 draw
VIDEO: Arizona's Nicole Dallin is making getting the early goal a habit. Three times through the UA's first three games — including Aug. 24 against Grand Canyon in the seventh minute — Dallin has scored inside the game's first 13 minutes. Video courtesy Arizona Athletics (Via X/Twitter)
So far through two games this season, Arizona (0-1-1) has two goals as a team; Dallin has both, and both have come within the first 10 minutes of the contest.
Last week against Iowa State, Dallin scored 9:32 into the Wildcats’ season-opening tilt. But the Cyclones scored eight minutes later, and then again approaching the 64-minute mark to earn the 2-1 win in Ames, Iowa.
Thursday, Dallin was even quicker off the draw, netting the game’s first goal 6:58 in. Again, though, it was the 64th
minute that caused Arizona fits. Grand Canyon’s Gianna Courley scored to tie the game.
Arizona had nine shots on goal, compared to just three for Grand Canyon (1-1-1) But UA goalkeeper Hope Hisey, a Tucson native from Canyon del Oro High School in her fifth year with the UA program, made the biggest save of the night in the 90th minute. She stopped a Grand Canyon penalty kick with a dive right, punching the ball away.
"Hope is the secret to Hope's penalty kicks," UA coach Becca Moros said postgame, via a team-issued release. "She's very long, she gets out big and she reads people really well. At that point, I think she's just got huge stretch and she's very quick.
"She's powerful off the first steps and she covers a big part of the goal which is the biggest thing. If you put it where she can get it, she's going to make a really good shot at it."
Dallin, a senior from Menifee, California, now has eight career goals in 33 games played.
Up next, Arizona is in Flagstaff taking on NAU at 1 p.m. The game can be streamed via ESPN+.
Arizona's Hope Hisey saved a draw for the Wildcats Aug. 24, 2023 against Grand Canyon a dive right to turn away a would-be GCU game-winning goal in the 90th minute. Video courtesy Arizona Athletics (Via X/Twitter)
The 2023 season marks the fifth as a Wildcat for goaltender Hope Hisey, a Canyon del Oro High School grad who has been named the Pac-12’s Goalkeeper of the Week three times in her career over 68 appearances in an Arizona uniform.
Last season, Arizona's Nicole Dallin (23) attempts to split a pair of Iowa State defenders during the Wildcats' 2-1 win over the Cyclones on Aug. 18, 2022, at Murphey Field at Mulcahy Stadium.
