Second-seeded UCLA will square off against Northwestern on Friday night in the second round of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament.
UCLA (16-2-2, 8-2-1 Pac-12) will host a tournament game for a second consecutive weekend after defeating San Diego State 3-1 to advance to the round of 32.
Northwestern (12-7-3, 7-3-1 Big 10) arrives in Westwood having outlasted Butler 3-2 in a penalty shootout after both teams were held to a scoreless draw throughout regulation and overtime.
A defense-oriented team, Northwestern will come into the match seeking to establish itself on the back end of the field.
“We’re expecting them to sit back,” said senior defender MacKenzie Cerda. “They’re a very athletic team that will look to assert themselves defensively.”
The Wildcats have struggled to score this season, having been held scoreless on five different occasions, compared to the Bruins’ two scoreless games.
“We need to play our own game,” Cerda said. “We can’t allow their style of play dictate how we’re going to play and attack.
The Bruins on the other hand will look to attack from the first blow of the whistle. UCLA has been one of the top offensive teams in the country this season, ranking sixth overall in total goals with 48 goals and eighth in goals scored per game at 2.40.
Meanwhile, Northwestern is nowhere near the top 50 in these two categories, managing only to score 24 goals at a rate of 1.09 per game.
“We’re going to come out with an attacking mindset; of course, we need to be patient, take what they are giving us,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “We can score in a variety of ways, from set plays, running plays or down the middle. I think we’ve proven not just one player can be stopped because we have a lot of weapons.”
The Wildcats are making their third consecutive appearance in the tournament, reaching the round of 32 in 2015 and the round of 16 last year.
“We want to keep growing, we want to continue taking bigger steps,” said Northwestern coach Michael Moynihan in a postgame interview after their win over Butler. “UCLA is one of those teams.”
The winner of this matchup will know who it could potentially play before the game even kicks off, as Virginia and Pepperdine square off prior to UCLA playing Northwestern.
Third-seeded Virginia lost an early season matchup against UCLA 2-1 in Charlottesville, while Pepperdine tied with UCLA 1-1 earlier this year in Westwood, taking the Bruins into double overtime.
UCLA is not looking beyond Northwestern though.
“Our team is mature about (making sure we’re not looking too far ahead). They know we have to win the game before we can even start thinking about Sunday,” Cromwell said. “We’ve played both teams so there won’t be any surprises. There is really not anything to look forward to until we win on Friday.”