UCLA women’s soccer beats Stanford, advances in playoffs

The rivalry between the UCLA women’s soccer team and
Stanford is making some playoff history.

Before the match on Sunday, UCLA and Stanford had met three of the last four years in the NCAA tournament. The Cardinal won the previous three encounters, but the No. 2-seeded Bruins ended that streak, beating the Cardinal 2-0 in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 game at Drake Stadium.

“In the past couple of years we haven’t had that many good runs with them, but we knew this was our year … and we just wanted to come out strong and finish this,” said sophomore forward Kodi Lavrusky.

“Our heart is so strong and we just love the game and everything we do, we just put so much desire into it.”

Lavrusky opened the scoring against the Cardinal in the 12th minute after junior midfielder Sam Mewis made a run up to the top of the box and passed it to Lavrusky, who curled a shot into the far post to put the Bruins on top.

Things remained the same until the 84th minute when sophomore forward Taylor Smith put UCLA up 2-0.

“I thought it was a really good match at the end,” Smith said.

“We played them before and it’s always such a good game, but I thought like our mentality and just our energy today was incredible and I think that’s what really won the game for us.”

Coach Amanda Cromwell said that the match against the Cardinal could have been worthy of a Final Four match, but she is happy to move on to the quarter finals.

“The caliber of this game was so high,” Cromwell said.

“Hats off to both teams (because) I think it was such a high-level, good quality game to watch. I was definitely a little anxious at the end until we got the equalizer. I could breathe a little bit and take a deep breath with less than five minutes to go. Taylor did an awesome job of finishing that. Hats off to Sam Mewis for her two assists today, and Kodi finished off a beautiful goal to start.”

The anticipated match between these two teams was possible after UCLA beat Kentucky 3-0 on Friday and Stanford toppled South Carolina 1-0 in overtime.

Junior midfielder Caprice Dydasco had two goals against the Wildcats in Friday’s game, the first goals of her collegiate career.

“I haven’t scored since I’ve been here, so it’s awesome,” Dydasco said.

“I feel like I’m dreaming; it’s too unbelievable, but my teammates made it possible. They set me up nicely. It was easy; I had good surrounding players to help me out.”

Redshirt sophomore forward Courtney Proctor also scored against Kentucky.

Proctor said that it was great to come off the bench and contribute with a goal and an assist to the Bruins victory.

“Any time you step on the field you try to make the best of it and try to create an impact,” Proctor said. “If it’s just hard work or if it’s just something else, you just try to do your best when you come off to replace the amazing player you just took off.”

UCLA will next play No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Elite Eight this Saturday.