Their trip to the NCAA Tournament, their 68 goals and 21 wins, and their 44-match unbeaten streak – these were all behind the UCLA women’s soccer team players. Their cleats hit the fresh-cut grass with uniforms as clean as their record – a blank slate. For the Bruins, however, it did not take long for that blank slate to be sullied.
George Allen Field in Long Beach had a record-breaking attendance on Friday evening. Two thousand, two hundred thirty two fans showed up to watch Long Beach State take on No. 4 UCLA, which boasted a 21-1-2 record last season compared to Long Beach’s 8-7-6.
UCLA won its last five consecutive season openers, but the highly favored Bruins would not make it to six, falling to Long Beach 1-0.
The 49ers’ winning goal, scored in the 67th minute, was originally attributed to Long Beach’s Vania Robles. The play was later reviewed and determined to be a pass that deflected off UCLA’s junior defender Amber Munerlyn. It will officially be scored an own goal, but the result is the same.
Coach Amanda Cromwell said the loss wasn’t entirely unexpected.
“This is a game where you look at the stats and we should’ve won, but I don’t think we necessarily deserved to win,” Cromwell said. “It turned into a grind-it-out kind of game and we didn’t grind it out.”
The Bruins took a total of 10 shots on goal to the 49ers’ four, but the Bruins were unable to finish the job in the attacking third. In the 73rd minute, senior forward Kodi Lavrusky scored on a header into the left lower corner of the net, but an offside call deemed the goal invalid. Ten minutes later, another shot by Munerlyn hit the crossbar, yet again failing to capitalize on a scoring opportunity.
“We’ve had a scrimmage now and a first game – we haven’t scored a goal,” Cromwell said. “Coming into the season, we thought goal scoring wasn’t going to be a problem.”
The team returned senior forward Taylor Smith this year, one of last year’s leaders in goals, but with the loss of its other two top scorers from last year, it remains to be seen whether the Bruins will remain a competitor offensively.
“We’re still trying to figure out our formation and how to get everyone on the same page,” Smith said.
Junior midfielder Annie Alvarado, the only other returning starter this year, said she isn’t worried about the day’s loss or a lack of leadership.
“We lost a lot of leaders but we have so many to replace them between my class and the senior class,” Alvarado said. “The seniors set the standard for us and we try and emulate them and everything they do … so we’ll push forward as a team.”
Friday’s game showed that the Bruins might be fighting an uphill battle, but Cromwell said she now sees where the team’s strengths and weaknesses lie.
“We got to be able to knock and move,” Cromwell said. “The times we played a lot of one-two’s all over the field and moved it quick – that’s when we’re most effective.”
After the loss Friday, the Bruins managed a 1-0 double-overtime win against the San Diego Toreros on Sunday. Junior forward Darian Jenkins scored the winning goal off a cross in the 103rd minute. Though they pulled in a victory, the team once again demonstrated offensive weakness. The Bruins put away one goal out of 20 shots taken during the game.
Cromwell said she was disappointed with the lack of corner kicks in Friday’s match since the team usually gets six or seven, adding that they needed to work on driving the end line and creating angles. On Sunday, the team did just that and was awarded eight corners, but none of them ended in a goal, proving its crosses inefficient.
On the other hand, after Friday’s game Cromwell said team defense exceeded expectations and Sunday’s match was no different. USD was limited to five shots, none of them counting as shots on goal. This could bode well for the future of the Bruins’ season if they are able to start capitalizing on offensive opportunities.
On Sunday, UCLA will play Wisconsin at 4 p.m. in its first home game of the season.