Chelf, Hisey Lead Arizona To 1-0 Win at Texas Tech

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Arizona Wildcats improved to 2-0 on the season with a 1-0 win at Texas Tech on Sunday. Junior midfielder Megan Art scored the lone goal of the match for the Wildcats and senior goalkeeper Hope Hisey picked up her 15^th career shutout.

The victory was the first true road win for head coach Becca Moros and it’s Arizona’s first 2-0 start since 2020 and the third time in the last four seasons.

Chelf’s goal came in the 69^th minute after the Red Raiders had controlled play for the early portion of the second half. The ball was deflected towards the end line and appeared to be going out for an Arizona corner kick. Nearly all the players in the vicinity had given up on it, but sophomore Maddy Knee continued to pursue the ball and was able to get a foot on it and send it up into the air towards the back post. Chelf was positioned perfectly and finished with a strong header just inside upper right corner – over a leaping TTU defender.

It is Chelf’s first career goal in the regular season after scoring a goal in the Wildcats exhibition match against San Diego State earlier this year. Koleno picked up the assist, the second of her career.

Texas Tech was able to put some pressure on the Arizona goal in the following minutes, generating a couple excellent chances at point-blank range but Hisey was up to the challenge, making two of her five saves in one scramble in front of the goal.

“The key for us was not letting a different surface impact our defensive intensity,” Hisey said. “We dealt with their offensive movement extremely well and Sarah Rice, Madison Goerlinger, Mariah Dunn and Ella Hatteberg made the tackles they needed to and played with everything they had until the final whistle.”
The 15 career shutouts rank fourth in Arizona history, just one behind Gabby Kaufman (16) for third place on the list.

The Red Raiders finished with a 17-6 edge in shots and a 6-3 lead in shots on goal. They also drew seven corners to four corners for Arizona.

The Wildcats’ first opportunity on the Texas Tech goal came in the fifth minute when Chelf took a couple touches and got into the box before firing a shot that skipped off the crossbar and out of play.

Later in the half, Cameron Valladares was in on the TTU keeper 1v1 but her touch was too much and the Tech keeper was able to knock the ball away before she could get a shot off.

Arizona will continue its early season road trip by traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the University of Nebraska on Thursday, Aug. 25. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Pacific and will be streamed live on Big Ten Network Plus (subscription required).