Women’s soccer sees victory in weekend exhibition matches, begins regular season

New Bruins made their mark in exhibition matches last weekend, but the next two games will be the ones that count toward the stats sheet.

No. 4 UCLA women’s soccer will open the regular season with a match against Iowa State at home Friday and one on the road against Long Beach State on Sunday. The Bruins outscored their two opponents 6-2 in last weekend’s exhibition series, with four goals coming from two freshmen and a transfer.

Freshman forward Kali Trevithick notched two goals – including the Sunday’s game winner against UC Irvine – and two assists in UCLA’s exhibition matches, but none of that counted toward her season statistics.

“I know this is going to be even more, the next level up from (the exhibition) games even,” Trevithick said. “I’m definitely nervous, but I’m so excited – more so because I got the support of my teammates, which definitely boosts my confidence.”

The Bruins generated six goals in their first two matches, but they will start their weekend slate against a team that didn’t concede a goal in exhibition play. Iowa State went 2-0 in exhibition games, matching UCLA’s six goals and not conceding any against UNI and Drake last weekend.

Coach Amanda Cromwell said the Bruins need to work on capitalizing on every goal scoring opportunity in order to succeed this season.

“We have to finish more chances, that’s always a focus of ours,” Cromwell said. “Obviously we did a good job on Friday, but (Sunday) I feel like it could have been two or three (goals) in the first half instead of one. We did a really good job of creating chances and being dynamic and dangerous but we have to put it away when we have the chance.”

Long Beach State, which was chosen as the favorite to clinch the Big West conference for the second straight year, return last year’s leading scorer senior forward Katie Pingel, who contributed four goals and three assists in 2018.

Junior LSU-transfer defender Lucy Parker started both exhibition games at center back for the Bruins, alongside senior defender Kaiya McCullough. Parker said her acclimation to UCLA has gone well, though there is is still room for improvement by getting more comfortable playing with her new teammates.

“I feel like (the transition to a new team) has been pretty seamless,” Parker said. “The only thing is I think I would have liked two shutouts (last weekend) and not to have conceded two goals. But that will come with time as we build relationships and get to learn the way each other play together.”

UCLA will host the Cyclones on Friday at 7 p.m. in Wallis Annenberg Stadium before traveling to face the Beach at 6 p.m Sunday.