There’s no “W” in “Bay Area,” unless you’re a part of the UCLA
women’s soccer team – then there’s two.
After besting the Stanford Cardinal 2-1 in double overtime in Palo Alto, Calif. on Thursday, the Bruins headed east to Berkeley, Calif. to hand the California Golden Bears their first defeat of the season, a 1-0 win for the Bruins.
It was a successful conclusion to a tough week, said UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell.
“Three games in six days is physically and mentally draining. To get the seven points out of it is huge. I know the girls and I, we, feel good about it,” Cromwell said.
With the win against No. 8 Cal (9-1-4, 2-1-2 Pac-12), No. 2 UCLA now sits firmly atop the Pac-12 standings with 13 points.
The Bruins (12-1-1, 4-0-1) opened the scoring in the 26th minute with a goal by junior midfielder Sarah Killion. Killion’s precision while playing the ball has been instrumental in creating six of the Bruins’ goals this season, but in Sunday’s game, she had a more direct impact on the scoreline.
The play began with a series of quick passes starting with a left corner from junior forward Rosie White, who elected to go with the short option in junior defender Caprice Dydasco on the left wing. Dydasco’s low cross found an unmarked Killion, whose deft first touch sent a chipped ball into the box that eventually bounced into the goal.
“The ball was kind of behind me and I just took a few steps back and tried to chip it into the mix and it ended up going into the goal, so that was nice,” Killion said.
With the time running out, and the Bruins up by one goal, the team shifted its focus to closing out the game, determined not to repeat the mistakes made against Stanford where the Bruins gave up their lead in the 88th minute.
“I think that when you get to the last five minutes of the game you got to just try and close it out. … In the Stanford game it was only a minute left and they scored,” White said. “I think that’ll be something we look at. We did well today; we just tried to keep it in the corner.”
White contributed a big part in the Bruins’ keeping their lead by isolating the ball on the left side of the opponent’s half of the field in the dying minutes of the game, burning precious seconds off the clock, thereby reducing the Golden Bears’ chance to equalize.
After playing a grueling 405 minutes this week, the team will now get some relief before facing the Arizona State Sun Devils in Drake Stadium on Friday.
“It’s nice knowing we only have one game next weekend, and we can actually get two days off after that game. So I think we’ll be able to muster up enough energy for that one game,” Cromwell said.