If anything can be said about the Bruins this early in the NCAA women’s soccer tournament, it’s that the offense is for real.
With a total of 12 goals over the weekend, No. 1 seed UCLA (19-2-1) drubbed Boise State (13-7-4) 7-1 on Friday before returning to Drake Stadium on Sunday to dominate San Diego State (15-4-5) 5-0.
“We are a team that peaks as this postseason arrives,” coach Jillian Ellis said. “Playing at home and playing with confidence, we’ve become quite a formidable opponent. I was just really pleased; it was a great start to the tournament.”
Sophomore forward Sydney Leroux came out firing on Friday evening, which is surprising given that the match against Boise State was her playoff debut.
On the other hand, the Broncos looked every bit the part of a team making its first ever NCAA playoff appearance.
“We don’t really pay attention to the name (of the opponent),” Ellis said. “We just knew we had to play well, and I thought for the first 10 minutes, we really didn’t.”
The Bruins indeed came out of the gates flat. In the seventh minute, UCLA allowed the Broncos’ Maureen Fitzgerald to score the early go-ahead goal.
But it was all UCLA the rest of the way. In the 13th minute, Leroux responded with a shot into the net from inside the box for the equalizer.
For Leroux, who missed the entire playoffs last year while playing for the Under-20 National team, it was her first career postseason goal, but certainly not her last.
In fact, she would go on to score three more times by game’s end, tying a school record for most goals in a match.
“I give all of my thanks to my teammates, (Lauren) Cheney gave me two of (the goals),” Leroux said. “It was my first playoff game so it was really awesome.”
Not to be outdone, senior forward Lauren Cheney recorded two strikes, and junior forward Liz Zadro scored the Bruins’ seventh and final goal in the 87th minute to seal the victory.
Sunday’s second-round match was the same story, this time the San Diego State Aztecs on the receiving end of the Bruins’ offensive onslaught.
Junior midfielder Kylie Wright got UCLA off to an early start in the ninth minute, drilling a point-blank shot from 25 yards out against an unsuspecting Aztec defense.
“We came out a little slow on Friday so the fact that we picked it up right away was phenomenal,” Wright said.
At the 18:41 mark, Cheney added to the lead, angling the ball from the right side into the upper left corner.
Not surprisingly, Leroux left her mark yet again, notching a goal in the 30th minute and another in the 59th minute for her team-leading 20th goal of the season.
Also making an appearance in the box score was senior defender Dea Cook. In the 54th minute, she headed in a corner kick from redshirt junior defender Jenna Belcher for her first goal of the season.
“We practice a lot on corners and set pieces … so I give credit to our coaches for putting us in that spot over and over again,” Cook said. “We just always have to anticipate that, and fortunately, I got my head on it.”