The story of UCLA women’s soccer in this year’s NCAA Tournament has been Sydney Leroux.
The sophomore forward scored two goals Friday night to lift UCLA (20-2-1) to a 3-0 victory over Virginia (10-6-6) in the Round of 16 at Drake Stadium.
Leroux’s first goal came in the 42nd minute when senior forward Lauren Cheney received a pass from freshman defender Lucretia Lee and touched the ball back to Leroux, who fired from the top of the box to the left corner.
With less than two minutes to go in the match, Leroux posted her second goal of the match and her eighth in the postseason when she punched a loose ball into the bottom right corner with the outside of her foot.
“She’s a goal-scorer,” coach Jill Ellis said. “Cheney gave her good spots, gave her the ball, and she’s just got a nose for the goal. She’s having a great run.”
With her two goals on Friday, Leroux notched her 22nd and 23rd goals this year, tying Cheney’s 2007 record for most goals in a season. Her eight postseason goals have surpassed redshirt senior Kara Lang’s mark for single-season NCAA Tournament goals, previously set at seven goals in 2005.
“We haven’t really been talking about records,” Leroux said. “Cheney’s about to break the big one. I just think that right now, we’re just so excited with winning. Our records to us right now is probably not the most important thing. The most important thing is that we came out tonight, and we played amazing and came out with a 3-0 win to go into the quarters.”
The top-seeded Bruins registered an early goal in the fourth minute when senior defender Dea Cook headed in a shot into the right corner after a corner kick from junior defender Lauren Barnes.
“That gives us a lot of confidence to score that early,” Ellis said. “We spent a lot of time this year on our set pieces, and it’s paying off.”
The early goal was Cook’s second goal in the season.
“I honestly don’t know how that happens,” she said. “It’s obviously really exciting. I’m really happy I can be there and do my job there. Again, we practiced those in practice and just learning to execute that and being in my spot.”
In addition to its offensive prowess, UCLA won on the defensive end.
Virginia’s best chance at scoring came with five minutes remaining when Cavalier midfielder Jess Rostedt dribbled past the UCLA back line, prompting redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Chante Sandiford to come out to contest Rostedt’s shot. Sandiford slipped as Rostedt got her shot off, but a Bruin defender was able to deflect the ball.
“We knew a lot about what they were going to do, so we were really prepared,” Leroux said. “We knew that this team came off a 6-2 win against a good team, so we knew that they were capable of scoring goals in the second half. We just needed to plug in, and we handled business.”
Ellis said that the UCLA back line was solid and that the Bruins’ defensive pressure all over the field was very good.
“Front to back everybody was committed to defending,” she said. “Everybody had to pitch in defensively.”
UCLA outshot Virginia 14-7 on the night and held the advantage in corner kicks 7-3.
Sandiford recorded her 10th shutout this season with three saves in the match. Virginia goalkeeper Chantel Jones made six saves.
With the third-round victory Friday, UCLA reached 20 wins for the fifth consecutive year and the NCAA quarterfinals for the seventh year in a row.
“Something that we emphasized this week since the beginning of playoffs is that we have to step up our physicality and come out on a mission to get it done right away,” Cook said. “I think we’re kind of getting that in our heads more and more, and it’s becoming the mentality aspect of the game that we’re really needing to step up, and I think that’s great. We just need to keep doing that every weekend.”
The Bruins will host second-seeded Portland Saturday in the NCAA quarterfinals. Portland is coming off a 4-1 victory over Virginia Tech.
“Great rivalry, familiar foes in the quarterfinals,” Ellis said of Portland. “We have our work cut out, and we’ll prepare this week for them.”