After the United States men’s national team debuted a new head coach in Jurgen Klinsmann, so did the UCLA women’s soccer team in B.J. Snow. However, Snow is much more familiar with the Bruins than Klinsmann with the Americans, as Snow has been with the program for the past five seasons serving as an assistant.
There was plenty of uncertainty coming into the season with a new head coach, 13 new recruits and only a week of practice under their belts, but the team quelled all doubts after an impressive win in an exhibition match against Cal State Bakersfield.
Despite possessing the game masterfully early on, the Bruins found themselves down 1-0 after CSU Bakersfield’s junior forward Sam Peña found the back of the net in the eighth minute after a counterattack.
“Our possession was absolutely phenomenal, which was the goal of the first half. We got exposed on one play in which they were able to counter on us and they scored on that opportunity and the credit goes to them as it was a great goal,” coach Snow said. “It provided an opportunity for us to recognize other things we need to work on, which is the whole point of the experience and going and playing in an exhibition game.”
Undaunted after falling behind, UCLA went back to its game plan of possession and continued to dominate the game. After playing quality soccer for the entire time, the Bruins were compensated in the 36th minute as senior forward Sydney Leroux scored from 12 yards out. Before many could figure out how to pronounce her name, Leroux struck again in less than 60 seconds to give UCLA a 2-1 lead. Two ticks of the minute hand later, freshman Kylie McCarthy scored with an assist from freshman Samantha Mewis, putting UCLA up 3-1.
“For us it wasn’t about scoring goals today, the goals just happen to be rewards for our performance. It was a validation to them for their hard work that they put in and the possession that we had leading up to that,” Snow said. “All the goals that we scored today were of very high quality and there’s a lot we can take from today.
“We knew that the goals would come eventually, but the main thing we were trying to work on was keeping possession of the ball.”
UCLA continued its strong possession in the second half of the game and netted another goal. Freshman Courtney Proctor scored in the 62nd minute off with McCarthy and Mewis assisting. It was the lone goal of the second half as the game concluded with a 4-1 Bruin victory.
“We had a plan going into the game that regardless of what the score was or the situation in the game, we had things we wanted to look at,” Snow said. “We had players we wanted to look at certain positions, we had players that we wanted to look at playing with certain people and we wanted everybody and needed everybody to get minutes.”
The success on the pitch coupled with a 4-1 victory will lead to even more progression for the team.
“We had a lot to take away from today and we are very impressed with our performance. It also provided us a framework that we have a lot of things we have to work on. We have a lot of new girls on our team and it’s time to get back to work here come Monday,” Snow said.
“The biggest thing for us is that we got out of the game healthy and we were able to get every single thing we needed to get done accomplished in the game.”
Compiled by Chris Nguyen, Bruin Senior sports staff.