Men’s soccer determined to bounce back against Oregon State

After last match’s overtime loss to No.1 California, the UCLA men’s soccer team can get away from where it happened, traveling out of Drake Stadium, and out of California, to Oregon.

UCLA will go up north to play Oregon State today, hoping to put behind a game many coaches and players believed to be one that they were in control of.

“I think it was our best team performance, but it was just unfortunate we lost the game,” said junior midfielder Leo Stolz. “Everybody is really motivated now to travel to Oregon State to beat them.”

A couple of days after the Cal game, players seem to be more motivated than defeated and will be looking at the Oregon State game as a chance to prove themselves.

Up north waiting for UCLA (7-3-1, 2-1-0 Pac-12) is an Oregon State (7-5-0, 0-3-0 ) team still winless in Pac-12 competition, having just lost 1-0 in a tough game against No. 3 Washington.

But for No. 5 UCLA, the team seems to be more worried about sustaining the high level of play it exhibited against Cal, hoping that a repeat performance will be more than enough to take on Oregon State.

“We thought it was our best game that we played so far, it was the style we want to play,” said freshman midfielder Felix Vobejda. “I think we should just look forward to Oregon State and Washington and win those games.”

Just as UCLA is pleased with the way it played against Cal, the result notwithstanding, outside validation came from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

UCLA had entered the Cal game ranked No. 6. Despite the loss, the Bruins actually moved up in the ranking, sitting now at No. 5.

Yet, all the positivity cannot hide what the result ended up being: a loss.

“We were disappointed,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “When you lose a game where you think you should have won or had an opportunity to win, what you want most is to play a game again so you can get back on the field and get it right.”

That opportunity comes this afternoon for the Bruins, and by then the team will be all focused on Oregon State, putting the Cal game in the back of its mind.

“We talked about how the Oregon State game is a very big game for us. We need to go up to Oregon State and prepare ourselves to have another good performance and go out to win the game,” Salcedo said. “I think it’s an extremely important game in our schedule because of where we’re at, because of the way we were playing.”