The UCLA men’s soccer team will be trying to erase some bad memories when it arrives in San Diego to take on San Diego State on Saturday night.
Last time the Bruins were there – on Sept. 26 – they were upset by the unranked San Diego Toreros. As a result, UCLA dropped from No. 1 in the NCAA men’s soccer RPI to No. 12 – their current ranking. The 1-0 loss to USD marked the third time in four games that UCLA was shut out by an unranked opponent.
On Thursday, the Bruins put in some extra work to prepare for the Aztecs, trying to ensure that the return trip to San Diego wouldn’t bring with it a return to an offensive slump. Junior midfielder Grady Howe said some team members allocated 45 minutes after practice particularly to offensive skill work and capitalizing on goal-scoring opportunities.
“Today’s practice was really good towards quality, especially finishing our goal-scoring chances,” Howe said. “You can definitely tell that guys are excited to put that in play during the game.”
Howe and UCLA are looking to turn the page as the San Diego State game marks the start of a new season in Pac-12 conference play. Similar to last year, the Bruins (5-2-2) had an up-and-down start to the season in non-conference action, beating some ranked teams while losing to a couple unranked ones. Howe said that this year’s team, however, is a little bit ahead of where last year’s team was at this juncture of last season.
“I think we’re more confident in our potential, and I think we have the full confidence that our ceiling is higher,” Howe said.
After already going through a tough Pac-12 conference schedule last year and coming out of it as the No. 1 team in the country and the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, upperclassmen like Howe feel that the Bruins could reach even greater heights this season.
“I think we’ve reached places as a team where like we’ve pushed our style of play, both offensively and defensively, to points where last season we weren’t able to go,” Howe said.
Compiled by Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff.