The streak lives on.
For the 34th consecutive year, UCLA men’s soccer made postseason play. The Bruins are making their 44th tournament appearance, the second most of any team save for Saint Louis, which made 48 appearances.
UCLA will host Colgate in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday evening at Drake Stadium, as the Bruins begin their quest for a fifth national championship title. The winner of the game will go on to face Louisville in the second round.
The Colgate Raiders (13-6-2, 5-3-1 Patriot) earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament after defeating American University 5-4 in a penalty shootout for the Patriot League championship.
Colgate forward Ethan Kutler scored the Raiders’ lone goal in regular time, and the game was tied 1-1 after two overtime periods, sending the game to a shootout.
Colgate goalkeeper Ricky Brown recorded back-to-back saves after letting in the first four, and Colgate went on to gain a one-goal advantage and the conference title.
The team is led by Kutler, who has amassed 10 goals this year, five alone during the team’s three conference tournament games against West Point, Loyola and American University en route to capturing the Patriots League crown and an automatic berth.
UCLA, on the other hand, is led by a core group of players headed by sophomore midfielder Jose Hernandez and junior forward Abu Danladi.
Tuesday, Hernandez was named Pac-12’s Co-Players of the Year after a strong second year has put him second on the team in both goals and assists.
In all, eight UCLA players received All-Conference recognition, including All-Pac-12 first team honors for sophomore midfielder Jackson Yueill, junior forward Seyi Adekoya and redshirt junior midfielder Brian Iloski.
Four teams from the Pac-12 made it into the NCAA Tournament, including Stanford – the defending national champion – but the Atlantic Coast Conference has the most teams of any conference with nine.
Big Ten champion Maryland, with whom UCLA tied in a match at the beginning of the year, is the No. 1 overall seed. The Terrapins went undefeated in regular season play, finishing with a record of 18-0-2. Their second tie came against No. 7 Indiana.
The Bruins have been plagued by inconsistency all year, as they were ranked as high as sixth before suffering losses to high-ranked teams and the three in a row at the very end of the season.
But if there’s a perfect time for the Bruins to step up their game, it’s now.