Beijing Normal University had already stunned one Pac-12 team in its American tour.
An own goal and more manifestations of poor communication didn’t help Cal when they fell to Beijing 6-5, but nonetheless, UCLA’s opponent came into Monday night’s scrimmage looking to put another notch in their Pac-12 belt.
The standouts for the Bruins so far this season made sure that didn’t happen.
Senior forward Darian Jenkins chipped the ball over Beijing’s defense to senior forward Amber Munerlyn, who then finished it off by shooting it right over the goalie’s head to put the Bruins up 1-0.
Minutes later, Jenkins cut into the left half of the box with the ball and plastered a shot through the strong side, past Beijing’s Qi Jaimin who was trying to seal off the post.
The Bruins continued to put pressure on the defense for the remainder of the first half but couldn’t tack on any more points until the second opened up.
Like the season opener on Friday vs. SDSU, the game was put even further out of reach quickly in the second.
Within the first minute, freshman Sunny Dunphy tapped a cross to waiting and wide-open senior midfielder Annie Alvarado in the center of the box to make the margin 3-0.
Sophomore forward Julia Hernandez headed a corner kick she received on the end line at left side of the goal all the way across to redshirt sophomore defender Chloe Hemingway on the right side, who headed it in five minutes later.
Right after that Hernandez grounded a ball into the bottom right corner for UCLA’s fifth goal in less than an hour of play.
She put her second goal of the game into the back of the net as the lucky recipient of senior Lauren Kaskie’s corner kick as multiple Bruins stormed toward the cage.
In the 64th minute, a long pass bounced off of one of Beijing’s defenders right to redshirt freshman Anika Rodriguez, who dribbled to the middle of the field and scored a lower left corner shot from about halfway between the end line and midfield.
Junior goalkeeper Siri Ervik played the full 90 minutes in Monday’s scrimmage after freshman Teagan Micah had the nod in the season opener.
Her night was relatively uneventful as Beijing couldn’t manage many shots on frame – and mostly because of the Bruins’ constant and overwhelming attack. About halfway through the second half however, she was almost caught out of position as one of Beijing’s players sent a ball sailing from midfield. The shot bounced just left of the cage.
UCLA will open up the hardest stage of their early-season schedule this weekend at No. 8 Texas A&M, before returning to Drake Stadium to face No. 7 Florida.