Women’s soccer upset by Washington State after inability to convert opportunities

The Bruins were upset by the Cougars for the second year in a row.

No. 8 UCLA women’s soccer (5-2-1, 0-1-0 Pac-12) conceded its home conference opener 1-0 to No. 14 Washington State (8-0-0, 1-0-0 Pac-12), despite creating 19 shots and eight corner kicks.

“We don’t take care of our opportunities and putting it away and then they have two shots on goal and score one of them,” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “It’s just frustrating that we have so much of the ball and can’t find a way to score.”

Cromwell said she was impressed with the Bruins’ ability to create chances, with 19 total shots and nine on goal. However, the coach said the problem was that UCLA’s shots on target did not pose enough of a threat to the Cougars’ keeper.

“When you look at the quality of the shots, the keeper only had to make a couple really good saves,” the coach said. “Some of the shots weren’t hit as hard as they could have been or they weren’t bent to the right post. It’s just a matter of placement and having a little more sophistication in our finishing.”

The game-winning play for Washington State started when sophomore defender Aaqila Mclyn launched a long ball over top of UCLA’s defensive line towards junior forward Morgan Weaver – the Pac-12’s third-leading goalscorer.

Weaver capitalized on the counterattack by carrying the ball toward UCLA’s far post. Weaver cut the ball back to her right foot as she neared the goal, improving her angle for the game-winning shot.

Cromwell said that allowing Weaver to strike the ball with her desired foot was the fatal mistake of her defender.

“One thing we always tell our defenders is to keep them wide on that and she let her cut back to her right foot and at that point the keeper doesn’t have a chance because the angle is just too easy,” Cromwell said.

Despite the final score, UCLA rotated 14 players throughout the game, allowing the lineup on the field to establish a comfortable flow and control the pace of play.

“With the same line up we get more chemistry,” said sophomore midfielder Viviana Villacorta. “Playing with each other all the time helps unite us more so we know how each of our players plays and our tendencies.”

Villacorta said the match showed the Bruins they need to capitalize on every opportunity if they want to compete in this conference.

“This loss is definitely a downer but we can learn from this a lot,” Villacorta said. “We dominated pretty much the whole game but we just need to clean up tiny technical stuff and have more urgency.”

UCLA will take on No. 1 Stanford in its next Pac-12 match on the 27th in Palo Alto.