With less than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, junior attacker Kelsey O’Brien was still looking for a way to add to UCLA’s four goal lead.
O’ Brien broke out in a sprint toward the opposing net and sent a shot sailing past the San Jose State goalie Alicia Magliocco.
The attacker’s goal was her second of the game and sent the Bruins on an offensive run that pushed through the remainder of Saturday’s game.
“I think everyone was just setting everyone else up for shots,” O’Brien said. “We did a really nice job passing today and it was just there.”
With the help of O’Brien’s three goals, junior utility Mackenzie Barr’s four goals and six other Bruins finding the back of the net as well, No. 2 UCLA (18-2, 3-0 MPSF) added to its six-game winning streak with a 13-6 win over No. 11 San Jose State (13-12, 0-4 MPSF).
“It was big for us to come out and jump on them and early and continue that through the whole game,” said coach Brandon Brooks. I thought that was very solid – we had good performances from many players.”
Eight different Bruins found the back of the net on the offensive end – Barr leading UCLA with four goals and one assist, capitalizing on the offensive end for her team.
“I felt a little more confident in my shot in this game,” Barr said. “I knew that my team needed me to step and shoot and score some goals, so I felt good doing that.”
The Bruins showed their dominance when it came to 6-on-5 counter attack opportunities. UCLA converted five of the nine opportunities pushing its average above 50 percent. The Bruins went 1-for-1 in the five-meter penalty shot as sophomore attacker Devin Grab converted the play.
“If you are above 50 percent – that’s a good number,” Brooks said. “We were able to convert our 6-on-5s and had minimal turnovers on the first quarter.”
The Bruins never trailed the Spartans through any quarter and had their largest lead of the game in the fourth at a cushioned seven goals.
The strong and overwhelming defense the Bruins put up against the Spartans propelled them to collapse San Jose’s attempts of diminishing the deficit. UCLA effectively pressed San Jose, which in turn limited their offense and forced turnovers for the opposing team.
“We’ve been practicing a lot for double post because we knew they would try to post up on the 4-5 side,” O’Brien said. “We just had to adjust to that and make sure we knew what was going on behind us.”
Freshmen goalkeeper Carlee Kapana had a total of 14 saves and one steal against San Jose keeping them in single digit scoring throughout the entirety of the match-up. Kapana gave up only a single goal in both the first and third quarter.
Though the Bruins appeared to seem near to perfect in today’s match-up, there were times where the energy and excitement fell short.
“We were talking, we were swimming hard, we were getting stops and we were shooting the ball, but I think we can get more participation from our bench and from the people in the water,” Brooks said. “We had some mistakes rushing on the counter attack and a focus let down at times and that’s when we gave up some opportunities to them.”
Heading into tomorrow’s games against both Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer, UCLA will look to extend their overall record and bolster the energy that seemed to fade in and out at times against the Spartans.
“We will be rested going into tomorrow so hopefully that energy will be there,” Barr said.