Somewhere in the midst of the calm and cool Malibu breeze, a whistle blew, and a roar of approval erupted.
The call was against visiting UCLA, and the ensuing penalty kick rewarded to Pepperdine’s Kelly Reilly.
Going one-on-one against Bruin goalkeeper Chante’ Sandiford, Reilly positioned herself, took aim and kicked.
A prolonged pause later, the orange-clad faithful let out a collective groan.
The Bruins’ redshirt sophomore goalkeeper dove to make the save, preserving her team’s tender 1-0 lead when all indications were that momentum had switched jerseys.
Playing on its heels for much of the second half, the No. 3 UCLA women’s soccer team held on to beat Pepperdine 2-0 in front of an announced crowd of 409 at Tari Frahm Rokus Field on Friday.
With the victory, the Bruins have now won nine consecutive games to go 9-1-1 on the season, while the Waves dropped to 6-4.
“We played well in the first half: good possession, good passing and good movement,” coach Jillian Ellis said. “In the second half, we couldn’t connect passes … and couldn’t get any rhythm, but you know what, to come in here where it’s always a difficult place to play … I’ll take (the win).”
In this tale of two halves, UCLA’s offense struck early in the match.
The Bruins’ first goal came in the seventh minute when sophomore forward Sydney Leroux scored off of a penalty kick.
The Waves’ freshman goalkeeper Roxanne Barker was called for a foul after she came out past the line to stop Leroux, who then took advantage of the penalty call.
The Bruins rounded out the rest of the half with eight shots compared to none for the Waves.
But it was the Waves that applied the pressure in the second half.
On several occasions, Pepperdine had a chance to tie the game, only to be fended off by the Bruins’ goalkeeper.
“If it weren’t for (Sandiford), the game would have been completely different,” Leroux said. “Hats off to her. She came up big-time for us.”
In fact, Sandiford collected all three of her saves after halftime, including the critical one against Reilly in the 64th minute.
“I saw the way (Reilly’s) body was shaped,” Sandiford said. “I knew which way she was going to go, and it was just a matter of getting my hands there first.”
It wasn’t until the game’s waning minute that UCLA scored its second and final goal.
Pushing quickly past midfield, freshman midfielder Chelsea Cline sliced through the defense and shot the ball from the top of the box into the lower left corner of the post at the 89:16 mark, sealing the game.
With the victory, the Bruins head into Pac-10 play on a high note, momentum and winning streak still in tact.
“We talked about finishing out the non-conference part of the season in a good frame of mind,” Ellis said. “We’ve still got some work to do, but playing at home this weekend will be good for us.”
UCLA will host Arizona Friday and Arizona State Sunday at Drake Stadium.