Halftime was the calm before the storm.
The UCLA women’s soccer team trailed by one goal going into the second half of Thursday’s match, but matters were about to get significantly worse for the Bruins.
The California Golden Bears shut out the Bruins 7-0 with six goals in the final 45 minutes of the game.
“You can’t make drastic mistakes and expect a team not to capitalize on it,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “Everything they touched was gold and everything we touched was … not gold.”
Not even five minutes into the second half, the score became 2-0 when UCLA scored an own goal at 48:08. Just under three minutes later, Cal scored and made it 3-0.
The Bruins had a prime opportunity to get on the board in the 59th minute when a penalty kick was called after junior forward Darian Jenkins was taken down in the box. Junior midfielder Annie Alvarado, who had gone three-for-three this year on penalty kicks, lined up to take the kick. The shot failed to find the back of the net, marking Alvarado’s first missed penalty kick of the season.
UCLA’s luck never turned as Cal would go on to score three more goals on redshirt freshman goalkeeper Siri Ervik. Ervik was in goal for UCLA’s last three wins against Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, but was no match for Cal’s attack. Pac-12 leading scorer Arielle Ship scored a hat trick for the the Golden Bears, stumping the Bruins’ usually tight defense.
Before Thursday, UCLA had gone 10 matches against Berkeley without being defeated.
“We just learned that we need to come together and be there for each other,” said redshirt sophomore midfielder Claire Winter. “My personal goal is to play for my seniors and go out with two good wins against USC and Stanford.”
The Bruins will need to put the loss behind them as quick as possible. The team has a quick turnaround in the Bay Area, taking on Stanford on Sunday.
“We just need to learn from the little mistakes and correct them for Sunday,” Jenkins said. “You can’t change the past.”
With an offense that been struggling all season and a now shaken-up defense, the Bruins will be hard pressed to turn the tables on the Cardinal.
With contributing reports by Claire Fahy, Bruin sports senior staff.