Sporting a change in fashion, the Bruins reverted back to an old habit: winning.
Donning baby pink uniforms in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the No. 4 UCLA women’s soccer team (14-2-1, 5-1 Pac-10) defeated Oregon State (10-5-1, 2-3) 3-0 on Sunday, a week removed from suffering just its second loss of the season against Stanford.
“We had some good chances in the first half, and I thought we could have had a couple of more goals,” coach Jillian Ellis said. “But we applied a little more pressure in the second half, and overall, I was pleased; that was a quality team that we beat today.”
The match started off slowly, shot-less for the first 10 minutes. Five minutes later, sophomore forward Sydney Leroux headed in a free kick by junior defender Lauren Barnes to put UCLA on the board, the only goal scored in the first half.
But the Bruins came out with more aggressiveness after the break. In the 66th minute, freshman midfielder Chelsea Cline scored from close range on a rebound from a shot by freshman midfielder Zakiya Bywaters.
Junior forward Liz Zadro capped it off for UCLA at the 80:20 mark, kneeing the team’s third and final goal on another rebound after senior forward Lauren Cheney’s shot bounced off the post.
Incidentally, Zadro had reason to celebrate even prior to the match. Her mother, Becky Zadro, was one of several family members of the Bruins who were commemorated as breast cancer survivors during the pregame ceremonies.
“It was awesome, especially with scoring the goal,” Liz Zadro said. “This was perfect for (my mom) because this was about breast cancer awareness. It was great that she could be here and see it.”
Sunday’s victory completed a weekend sweep of the Oregon schools, as the Bruins also beat Oregon (8-6-1, 0-4) on Friday.
In the fourth minute of Friday’s win, Leroux scored on a left-footed shot from the top of the box. Junior midfielder Elise Britt and sophomore midfielder Summer Williams registered the assists.
Leroux added another goal when she headed in a ball off of a cross from sophomore defender Amelia Mathis.
Cheney made two goals within three minutes of each other.
In the 18th minute, right after a Bruin throw-in, Williams tapped the ball to Cheney, who fired a left-footed shot from inside 18 yards to the right corner when Oregon goalkeeper Jessie Proulx came out slightly.
At the 20:06 mark, Cheney sent a low shot from the top of the box to the right post off of a feed from Bywaters.
For Ellis, the Friday win was a team effort.
“There’s just some really good movement from us tonight off the ball,” Ellis said. “I thought our possessions were good. Everybody got involved, everybody contributed.”
Cheney would return the favor to Bywaters in the second half.
Following a corner kick from Barnes, Cheney weaved through the Ducks’ defense, dribbling past Oregon players with a crowd-pleasing crossover, dropping the ball to Bywaters on the right.
UCLA’s fourth goal of the game came when Bywaters sent a high shot into the net.
“I thought we played well as a team,” Leroux said. “I’m really happy me and Cheney really connected quite well. We came off a pretty big loss, so this game was pretty huge for us.”
Key players suspended, injured
Missing this weekend for the Bruins, senior defender Lauren Wilmoth and senior forward Kristina Larsen are serving a suspension for a violation of team rules.
“We had some players violate team rules so they weren’t with us,” said Ellis after Friday’s game. “I’ll make a firm decision probably (today). It was just a violation of team policy, and we had to suspend them.”
Additionally, freshman midfielder and forward Ahsha Smith tore a medial meniscus and is expected to be back for the postseason in mid-November.