There were plenty of narratives in play during Friday’s matchup between No. 1 UCLA and No. 9 University of North Carolina.
It was a face off between the 2013 NCAA women’s soccer champions and their 2012 counterparts. It was also the rubber match between two teams who took one game apiece in their two games last season.
But that score would have to be settled another day, as both teams were unable to crack the other’s code, and the game remained scoreless after 110 minutes.
“The mentality was definitely there, it’s just the finesse in the final third, and (needing to be) more composed,” said junior forward Taylor Smith about her team’s inability to score. “Not so much just the finish but the final pass, just getting to goal. I think we could definitely work a little bit more on that.”
Whether it was shots being too high, a defender’s foot in the way, tripping in the last second or a goalkeeper’s touch, it seemed that there was always something to prevent the ball from hitting the back of the UNC net.
And even when the Bruins scored, the raised flag of a linesman negated Smith’s scoring attempt with an offside call.
“I’m not sure if Taylor’s, the one she scored, was offside,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “She’s just so fast sometimes it appears she might be offside.”
Though there may have been controversy behind the call, the fact remains that the Bruins were not called offside just once, but six times – which is more than they had in their previous two games combined. These mistakes were something that Cromwell attributed to a combination of the Tar Heels playing with a high back line and her players needing more games to get used to the timing of their off-the-ball runs.
At the end of double overtime, UCLA might have commanded most of the possession and even outshot UNC 12-4, but their inability to finish the game off with a goal meant they had to walk out of Drake Stadium as equals with the Tar Heels (1-2-1).
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Two nights later, at first it seemed like déjà vu against University of San Diego.
For the second time in three days, the Bruins fired 12 times at the opponent’s goal during the first half, but the game remained goalless.
Whatever UCLA was doing in the first 45 minutes wasn’t working against USD’s man-marking defense. There needed to be changes in the second half, changes Cromwell would introduce with a question not often associated with a soccer field.
“I asked ‘how many of you guys play basketball?’ and they raised their hands,” Cromwell said. “When you play basketball against man-marking, it’s different, you gotta move off the marks in a different way and even post up.”
The reference to hardwood floors became the catalyst for the No. 1 Bruins (3-0-1) eventual 2-0 win over the Toreros (1-2-1).
“It was on us to clear a lane for somebody else,” said senior midfielder Sam Mewis, who scored UCLA’s first goal in the 55th minute. “(Senior midfielder Sarah Killion) played it into me and made a run to go forward, and instead of playing it back to her I just turned inside and shot it with my left foot.”
The improved off-the-ball movement continued to create more chances for the Bruins, including one that was slotted into the USD goal by junior forward Kodi Lavrusky to cement their 2-0 victory.
Although the Bruins suffered from inconsistencies on offense over the weekend, the team remained solid on defense. Senior goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland broke the UCLA record for career shutouts after earning her 39th against UNC, and added to that number with her 40th against USD.
“I have to give so much credit to my back line,” Rowland said. “Our defense as a team has just been so incredible last year, and it’s rolled over this year.”
UCLA will bring that defense across the Pacific Ocean as it heads out to Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday for weekend matchups against Hawai’i (1-2-0) and No. 17 Pepperdine (4-0-0).