UCLA women’s soccer weathers storm vs. Pepperdine in last-minute win

A seven-goal victory over Harvard on Friday ushered UCLA women’s soccer to a Sweet Sixteen matchup against Pepperdine on Sunday – a game that both teams would only have one day to review the tapes for.

But something neither team could have scouted ahead for was how the wind would affect the Sunday’s matchup.

The No. 1-seeded Bruins (21-0-2) have faced cold, late-night kickoffs and warm midday games at Drake Stadium, but no other home game this season resembled the conditions they had to face against the No. 4 seeded Waves (16-3-4).

And the winds, strong enough to move the barricades lining the goal lines, seemed intent on leaving a mark on the game by blowing trash onto the field and altering the trajectory of the soccer ball.

“The wind factored into the first half,” said UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell. “Having the wind at our back, the passes went long. We have a fast field too, so the combination of that, our playmaking was a bit off in the first half.”

The wind, however, wasn’t the only thing creating a different atmosphere at Drake Stadium; the partisan Malibu crowd that cheered on any change of possession in Pepperdine’s favor and at times out-dueled their UCLA counterparts in back-and-forth cheers were rewriting the definition of an away game for the Waves.

“You wouldn’t think so, but it changes the game a lot,” said junior forward Taylor Smith. “I think it also helped that we had our teammates on the other side. One of them said for the last five minutes they were standing up on the other side and cheering really loud for us.”

Despite an atmosphere and environment that seemed more reminiscent of the coastlines at Malibu, the Bruins showed the Waves why they deserved home-game advantage as the No. 1 seed and the right to move on to the quarterfinals.

After a scoreless 87 minutes, the game started to knock on the door of overtime and a possible penalty shootout.

That was until UCLA’s reliable goal scorer, senior midfielder Sam Mewis, provided the separation between the two teams.

“I had missed a couple of shots and knew we had to score,” Mewis said. “I just saw (sophomore forward Darian Jenkins) running down the side and we’ve practiced the slot pass all the time. I was just excited and I really wanted the ball really bad.”

A through pass by senior defender Ally Courtnall allowed Jenkins to bring the ball down the right wing and whip the ball to the middle of the box for Mewis. The midfielder took a touch to open up a shooting lane, before hitting it hard and low into the Pepperdine goal.

What happened next was a scream of elation from Mewis and a rush to the right to give Jenkins an embrace.

And just about two minutes later, at 4:51 p.m. in Los Angeles, the sun set on Pepperdine women soccer’s season.

“Scoring late made it exciting,” Cromwell said. “I’m glad we only had two minutes to kill. It’s never fun to have to ride that out.”

For the Pepperdine fans in orange, it was time for them to shuffle out of the Drake Stadium and make room for another orange contingent – the University of Virginia fans who’ll be cheering on the Cavaliers in the quarterfinals on Friday.