Women’s soccer defeats defending NCAA champ Penn State in overtime win

The UCLA women’s soccer team came out cold Friday night.

It made sense why it would. The Bruins were fresh off a heartbreaking overtime loss against Florida and the players had just watched their male counterparts lose on an 88th minute wonderstrike. It was past 8 p.m. in a cavernous Drake Stadium, with the temperature just over 60 degrees but with serious windchill. It was cold.

So in what would eventually end up being a 1-0 victory for the No. 11 Bruins (3-1-0) over the No. 13 Penn State Nittany Lions (1-2-1), the Bruins’ lackluster start wasn’t completely surprising.

“The first half we were very impatient,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “We were trying to find balls over the top too much.”

The Nittany Lions handled the Bruin attack gracefully, fending off through balls and controlling possession. Though the Bruins briefly threatened in the 8th and 30th minute, the game seemed bogged down in the midfield.

Penn State, the defending national champions, didn’t add much to the action on their part offensively. As the first half ended with a score of 0-0, both teams knew they had some work to do.

“We were having a hard time breaking down their defense,” said freshman midfielder Jessie Fleming. “(We focused on) just finding those one-two combinations and just trying to get through them.”

Things finally started to open up in the second half.

“We stayed really composed and played as a unit.” said junior defender MacKenzie Cerda. “We changed our formation and that was a little more attacking, and I felt like that gave us a little more momentum to get up and go.”

UCLA started making dangerous runs to the net, one of which nearly led to a goal in the 80th minute after some defensive miscommunication by Penn State.

Though the game was still tied at the end of regulation, the Bruins had clearly woken up.

“We kept plugging away,” Cromwell said. “We’re very resilient.”

The chance finally came in the ninth minute of overtime, when Fleming headed in a Cerda corner kick.

“We were hitting it near post and we’ve been hitting that ball far post every time and we heard their players saying ‘Far post, far post,’” Cerda said. “Right when it went near (post) we were pretty stoked about it.”

Fleming, who had come back from a bronze-medal-winning performance for Canada in the Rio Olympics, had scored two goals in UCLA’s previous game against Florida. This time, only the one was necessary.

[Read more: UCLA athletes, coaches deliver strong performances in Rio]

“The service has been great,” Fleming said. “I’ve just been getting on the end of it.”

The Bruins may have wanted more goals, and the crowd may have wanted more excitement, but the team beat the defending national champions by slipping past a steadfast defensive team. UCLA may have not set the world on fire, but it was enough just to break through the ice.