The defending Pac-12 champions received a rude awakening early in the second half of their first conference matchup.
No. 1 UCLA women’s soccer was given a run for its money by No. 24 Arizona State on Friday at home in Tempe, Ariz., finishing the matchup 1-1 and even letting Arizona State take the lead in the 49th minute.
Sun Devil freshman midfielder Aly Moon sent forward a long through pass that skipped past the Bruin defenders and unleashed junior forward Cali Farquharson for a one on one. The Sun Devils’ top scorer managed to sidestep senior goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland on the breakaway and slot the ball into an unprotected net.
From then on, the pressure was all on UCLA (8-0-2, 0-0-1 Pac-12) to come up with a response in order to avoid suffering its first defeat of the season.
The Bruins did try to come back – and they tried hard. They fired five shots in the next fifteen minutes, including three that forced ASU’s redshirt junior goalkeeper Chandler Morris to make saves in order to keep the dream of upsetting the nation’s top-ranked team alive.
But that dream eventually faded in the 66th minute, when junior forward Kodi Lavrusky fired a header off a cross, which Morris could only parry into the feet of senior forward Rosie White, who secured UCLA’s equalizer from point-blank range.
UCLA continued to put pressure on ASU (7-1-2, 0-0-1), finishing the half with 18 shots. All that firepower wasn’t enough to secure the kill, however, as the score remained level to force overtime.
The 20 minutes of overtime weren’t enough to produce a deciding goal from either team, and the score remained deadlocked at one apiece by the end of 110 minutes.
Upsets around the Pac
UCLA’s stalemate against ASU wasn’t the only upset in conference play this weekend, as No. 4 Stanford – a team that looked invincible on defense after going eight games without being scored upon – lost its perfect defensive record in a 1-1 tie against unranked Utah on the same day.
The weekend’s upsets showed, more than anything, just how competitive women’s soccer is within the conference. With a total of five teams ranked in the top 25, the Pac-12 Conference ranks No. 2, just behind the Atlantic Coast Conference, which has six.
After this week’s shaky start, UCLA will continue its campaign to defend the Pac-12 championship with two home games next weekend, against Utah on Friday and Colorado on Sunday.
Compiled by Aubrey Yeo, Bruin Sports senior staff.