UCLA women’s soccer crowned Pac-12 champions for second year in a row

Records were broken, champions were crowned – and more than 10,000 people were there to witness it.

For the 10,128 people in the stands of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum watching No. 1 UCLA finish its regular season with a 2-0 win over USC, they were also a record.

“I tell you what, this atmosphere brought me back to my national team-playing days,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “Having 10,000 people in this stadium, they were loud. … The atmosphere was awesome. It felt like a playoff game, it felt like something to win a championship in.”

It was hard to determine whether the largest crowd at an NCAA women’s soccer match was favoring one side over the other, with gasps of relief for every missed shot or defensive stand at either side of the field.

For a majority of the matchup, that was the only thing the crowd could react to. And although UCLA (18-0-2, 10-0-1 Pac-12) appeared to be the more dominant of the two L.A. teams, the score line remained 0-0.

The Trojans (12-6-2, 6-5), true to their namesakes, put up a strong defensive front while their home was under siege. On several occasions, USC senior goalkeeper Caroline Stanley was the foundation of that Trojan wall, pulling off acrobatic saves to prevent the sacking of her team.

Unlike the Troy of legend, however, the Trojan wall on Friday night was not impervious to attack.

Senior defender Caprice Dydasco kicked off another assault in the 79th minute with a shot from range that seemed to have the requisite pace and accuracy to land in the top-left corner of the Trojan goal. But instead of the net, the ball made contact with the hands of the leaping USC goalie, who once again produced an athletic save to keep the score tied.

The parried ball fell to the feet of senior forward Kylie McCarthy, who, after weaving past a Trojan defender, managed to set up a one-on-one with the goalkeeper at close range. This time, Stanley’s hands weren’t able to prevent the Bruins from taking the lead and the crowd from celebrating with an 8-clap.

“She’s a great keeper, and she made some good saves,” McCarthy said. “But it’s just keeping composed in the box and placing it where she wasn’t.”

McCarthy would complete her two-goal brace in the 87th minute after slipping past two USC defenders to latch onto a through pass from senior defender Ally Courtnall to seal the game at 2-0.

It was a different story on the opposite side of the field, as senior goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland managed to keep her seventh straight clean sheet, placing her in UCLA’s record books and tying an NCAA record.

“As much as a personal thing it is for goalkeepers to get shutouts, it’s for sure a team thing,” Rowland said. “And my backline is the absolute best in the country, and without them, I couldn’t do it.”

UCLA won its second straight conference championship, but complementing this year’s title with an undefeated record wasn’t the only thing that went differently for Cromwell’s second Pac-12 championship.

“I called (athletic trainer) Max (Bertman) into the office (Friday) and said, ‘Make sure you have three little coolers so everyone can get doused that’s on the staff, and not me this time,’” Cromwell said with a laugh. “I was so happy – they got (assistant coach Louise Lieberman) really well; she just got doused. It was awesome.”

Not everyone left the field drenched, however. Assistant coach Josh Walters was able to avoid an icy fate after he showed his team he knew how to play a little defense of his own, deflecting the contents of the cooler back at sophomore defender Alyssa Alarab.

If Alarab and the rest of the team are still adamant that Walters receive a Powerade bath, they still have another opportunity to soak the assistant coach. And when that happens, he might be more willing to oblige.

“I want to save it for another trophy.” Walters said. “They can get me for another trophy.”