On one side stood the UCLA women’s soccer captain, senior midfielder Sarah Killion.
On the other side stood another captain, albeit one from the men’s team, redshirt senior goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr.
Killion booted the ball to the left of goal, Edwards dove right.
As the team continued wrapping up its Wednesday practice before its game against Harvard on Friday, the scene was rehearsed with a different player at the spot each time, many scoring their penalty kicks, with Edwards making the occasional save.
“They’re pretty good at PKs, man,” said junior forward Larry Ndjock as he watched with the rest of his teammates on the sidelines.
With the playoffs in full swing, the No. 1-seeded UCLA women’s soccer team have started to adapt its practice to consider the additional scenario of penalty kicks.
“It’s just a good challenge for us to get mentally prepared if we ever have to take one in the game,” Killion said.
During the regular season, a tie after overtime results in both teams calling it a day. In the playoffs, if neither team is able to break the deadlock after 110 minutes, the match is then decided by a game of chance, where either team has a chance to move to the next round regardless of which team has the better stat lines.
And in order to simulate that feeling of playing against an unfamiliar opponent, the women’s soccer team needed a little help.
“Our keepers, they know how our players go,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “It’s not real beneficial to have your own keeper in here taking PKs. Earl jumping in just helps us so the girls can go their normal way without the keeper necessarily knowing which direction they’re going.”
The next instance when the Bruins (19-0-2) will have to close out the game and avoid a potential shootout is on Friday against the Harvard Crimson (11-4-2) at Drake Stadium.
UCLA’s opponents from the Northeast add an additional layer of mystique, playing in an Ivy League conference located on the other side of the country. But the coaches said it’s just one of those situations where they’ll have to use the tale of the tape to help familiarize them with the Crimson.
“It will definitely be a good challenge playing a team from another area. Their style will be a little different and we haven’t seen them this year so it’ll be a little bit unfamiliar,” said senior midfielder Sam Mewis. “But I think that (our coaching staff is) doing a good job preparing us.”
If UCLA wins against Harvard on Friday, it’ll set up a potential matchup against the winner between No. 4 seed Pepperdine and Illinois State on Sunday.