Sunday’s National Women’s Soccer League title match might as well be a reunion of UCLA’s 2013 NCAA championships team.
Six starters from that national championships team will be onf the pitch together once again when the Western New York Flash take on the Washington Spirit for the NWSL crown.
Former Bruin defender Abby Dahlkemper, midfielders Sam Mewis and McCall Zerboni, goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland and forward Taylor Smith all started at least five games this season for the Flash, with Dahlkemper starting in all 21.
Mewis ranked third on the team with five goals, including one to open the scoring in the Flash’s win over Portland in the semifinals. She also added an assist on the game-winning goal in double overtime.
The Spirit’s Caprice Dydasco and Megan Oyster – back line teammates with Dahlkemper when the three were at UCLA – round out the Bruins who will compete for the championship. Dydasco and Oyster have started 13 and 16 games for Washington Spirit respectively, with Dydasco chipping in two assists.
Four of the six Bruins from the 2013 squad played an integral role in their NCAA Tournament run. Smith’s golden goal in the quarterfinals gave UCLA its first-ever win over North Carolina and sent the team to the College Cup. One round later in the semifinals, Rowland saved two penalty kicks in a shootout which UCLA won 4-2 against Virginia. And in the championship game, Oyster assisted forward Kodi Lavrusky’s title-clinching goal. Dydasco added two goals and six assists in the championship campaign.
Dahlkemper and Mewis, while they might not have run up the score sheet in the NCAA Tournament, won back-to-back Honda Awards in 2014 and 2015. The award is given annually to the top female collegiate athlete in her respective sport. In Zerboni’s four years at UCLA, she started 73 games, racking up 13 goals and 17 assists while playing in the College Cup each season.
For both the Flash and the Spirit, this will be their first chance to win the NWSL title. Kickoff is Sunday at 2 p.m. in Houston, Texas.