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Women’s soccer looks to increase corner kick conversion efficiency

By Matthew Kenney

Oct. 14, 2019 11:45 p.m.

Lucy Parker’s header sailed into the back of the net for the junior defender’s first goal in Westwood.

It was also the Bruins’ first goal off a corner kick since their season opener.

No. 22 UCLA women’s soccer (9-3-1, 3-2 Pac-12) has taken 97 corner kicks this season, the top mark in the Pac-12 and 12th in the NCAA. However, the Bruins have scored just twice on these opportunities, and had a 10-game stretch without a goal off a corner kick.

For comparison, UCLA’s opponents have taken 35 corner kicks but have scored two times as well.

Last season, the Bruins were second in the conference in corner kicks but had a similarly low scoring rate. UCLA did not score off a corner kick until its seventh game of 2018 and scored three times on 136 corner kicks overall.

This year, the Bruins scored on their fourth corner kick of the season, when freshman forward Mia Fishel found the back of the net off a long ball from junior midfielder Marley Canales. UCLA failed to score on its next 84 corner kicks before Parker’s goal against Colorado on Thursday.

“We obviously like to finish every single set piece that we take,” said redshirt senior forward Anika Rodriguez. “As a hope and as a standard that we’ve set for ourselves, I don’t think we’ve quite reached that yet. I think that we’re still trying to execute all the details and not just one detail a game – making sure that we’re putting all the pieces together.”

Entering Thursday’s game, the Buffaloes had allowed just 33 corner kicks in 12 games. However, UCLA forced the ball deep into Colorado territory early in the match, taking five corner kicks in the first 25 minutes.

The first four missed the mark – including a shot from Canales in the 20th minute that Colorado goalkeeper Jalen Tompkins just managed to keep from slipping past her.

Canales lined up a corner kick five minutes later and served it into the box where a cluster of Bruins waited in formation. Tompkins punched the ball out of the air but sent it straight to junior forward Kennedy Faulknor, who headed it to Parker for the finishing blow.

“It was awesome, especially against a team like (Colorado),” said coach Amanda Cromwell. “We’ve been working a lot on set plays and stressing the execution. It was great, I was happy about that.”

Next up, UCLA will square off against Stanford and Washington, a pair of teams with a combined 9-1-0 conference record. The Huskies and Cardinal also round out the top three for corner kicks in the Pac-12, with 85 and 83, respectively.

Fishel said she is hopeful the Bruins will continue to improve on converting their set pieces moving forward.

“It’s good that we’re creating those corners,” Fishel said. “We have been practicing, and some of them go in and some of them don’t. But I feel like as we play more games, we’ll get more confident on corner kicks and hopefully score more goals.”

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Matthew Kenney | Alumnus
Kenney joined the Bruin as a sophomore in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2020. He spent time on the baseball, softball, men's soccer, women's soccer, track and field and cross country beats.
Kenney joined the Bruin as a sophomore in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2020. He spent time on the baseball, softball, men's soccer, women's soccer, track and field and cross country beats.
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