CARY, N.C. — On Dec. 8, the dream of 33 women came true.
Each stride that willed a fatigued body forward, each skipped heartbeat when a player in an unfamiliar jersey took a shot and each collective sigh of relief followed by screams of jubilation after watching the ball hit the back of the opponent’s net kept the dream alive and forged this moment.
On Sunday, history was made. The continued mantras of ‘110’ and ‘Stronger Together’ over the season that guided the UCLA women’s soccer team toward its ultimate goal have finally done their job.
The team finally delivered UCLA its first national championship in women’s soccer.
“UCLA leads the country in most national championships and we wanted to contribute to that,“ said junior midfielder Sam Mewis. “It’s unreal we won our 110th one. We’re so happy.”
The journey to 110 was not an easy one for No. 2 seed UCLA. Many considered it a snub that UCLA was not awarded a No. 1 seed by the NCAA. But that wasn’t the only issue with the bracket.
UCLA’s spot in the bracket meant getting a trip to the College Cup would require facing the the last two national champions: Stanford and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
And even after beating those two opponents the challenges continued to pile on for UCLA, in a schedule that UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell said may be one for the history books.
“Those are very good teams,” Cromwell said. “If you look back, it may be one of the best runs ever. It really might be.”
Best v. best
UCLA’s first opponent in the College Cup was none other than the No. 1 team in the nation: Virginia, home of the nation’s top-ranked offense that had terrorized each of its opponents with an average of three goals per game.
If any team could face this prolific offense, it had to be the squad with the nation’s best defense, and UCLA’s goals-against-average of 0.308 is an NCAA low.
For 72 minutes, it seemed like the nation’s top offense had met its match, until an errant pass from junior defender Abby Dahlkemper allowed Virginia forward Makenzy Doniak to capitalize and put the Cavaliers up by one.
But when it became paramount that the Bruins find a way to score, the team showed it had some offensive tricks of its own. Switching from the standard 4-2-3-1 formation to an offense-heavy 3-5-2 formation, the Bruins fought back.
And 12 minutes later, junior defender Ally Courtnall, playing right wing instead of right back in the new formation, made a run into the penalty box.
Junior midfielder Sarah Killion slipped in a deft pass that gave Courtnall a goal-scoring opportunity, and the player who once left the team and decided to return to help them win a national championship kept that dream alive.
“When I got the ball, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t mess up. I have to put this away,’” Courtnall said. “I’m just happy to be here and I definitely would have regretted my decision if I was watching them play the national championship game on TV.”
After the ensuing double overtime ended in a stalemate, the Bruins and Cavaliers moved on to the dreaded tie-breaker: penalty kicks.
Junior goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland’s safe hands gave the Bruins a 3-2 edge in penalties. With one UCLA penalty kick left on the schedule, junior forward Rosie White placed the ball on the spot, took several steps back and slotted it home.
“Credit to Katelyn for making two huge saves,” White said. “Being the last one to take it, there was a lot of pressure on me. I was just trying not to overthink it and put it where I want to.”
The Pac-12 champions were one step closer to earning UCLA’s 110th national Championship. There was just one last hurdle on the way. And it was a tall one: the Atlantic Coast Conference champions Florida State University.
Conference Champion v. Conference Champion
Freezing weather and a damp pitch set the mood for the battle between the team from the Pacific and the team from the Atlantic.
UCLA took the advantage early on. A combination of quick passes and quick players differentiated the Bruins as the clear favorites over the No. 1-seed Seminoles. But FSU had an answer – tough tackling.
The Seminoles used the game stoppages that came with committing fouls to their advantage, utilizing the downtime to regroup their defense. With virtually the entire team playing defense, FSU adopted a strategy based largely on defending and hoping for a chance to score from counter-attacks or set-pieces.
But despite having the upper hand and outshooting the Seminoles 15 to five, 90 minutes was not enough time for the Bruins to seal the deal.
Six minutes into overtime, junior defender Megan Oyster took a gamble taking the ball forward by herself, and it paid off.
“Honestly, I just took my chances,” she said. “It was probably the best pass in my life; I’ve never done that before. I guess it was a good time.”
A good time indeed. Oyster’s pass stopped perfectly at Kodi Lavrusky’s feet, and the sophomore forward made no mistake from the 12-yard line; she scored the golden goal that secured the national championship for the Bruins.
According to Lavrusky, the 10-shot advantage the Bruins held over the Seminoles showed the Bruins it was only a matter of time before they scored that elusive goal.
“The whole game we knew we had it in us,” Lavrusky said. “We knew our chances were coming so we just had to finish one.”
And with that 1-0 victory, the dream of 110 became as real as the wood-and-gold national championship trophy the players were holding in their hands just moments later.
The team brought the same unity they showed on various fields throughout the season to one last place – the locker room. And 33 collective voices sang ‘We are the Champions’ and ‘All I do Is Win’ in unison. They had finally won the big one.