Men’s soccer sees third consecutive loss in matchup against Washington

The Bruins tied or beat the Huskies in almost every statistical category after 90 minutes Sunday, except for one – goals.

UCLA men’s soccer (1-4-1, 0-3-1 Pac-12) fell to then-No. 7 Washington (6-1, 3-1) 2-0 on Sunday afternoon after outshooting the Huskies in the second half in the Bruins’ return to Wallis Annenberg Stadium.

“I think (today) sparked something for us, yes it was a loss and you know it’s disappointing, but sometimes it just takes that little ‘We can do this guys,’ that little belief, that little spark, and understand that maybe on a different day we beat that team,” said redshirt sophomore defender AJ Vasquez. “We look at the positives and then we need to look at the two little mistakes we had and we fix those and then you know it’s a different game.”

It was a game of two starkly different halves for UCLA. The first saw the Bruins absorbing much of pressure from the Huskies, who hit the post on a shot attempt in the 14th minute and took the lead in the 31st minute by the way of defender Ryan Sailor, who scored his second goal of the season.

After totaling seven shots over the course of its past two games, there was potential for more offensive troubles for UCLA after it mustered one shot in the first half. But coming out of halftime, the Bruins began to find more success on the offensive end.

“It was coming in the first half, it was building for us. If the first half was in the three parts, the first part we wore a little pressure. The second part we started to get a hold of it, the third we started to take take charge in it,” said coach Ryan Jorden. “We just can’t concede a goal from a set piece in the process, but I felt like as we came back out in the second half we just progressed from where we were.”

Against a Washington defense that has held its opponents to fewer than two shots on goal per game, UCLA forced four saves from goalkeeper Sam Fowler and outshot the Huskies 8-5 overall over the course of the second half.

It was the most shots in a half for the Bruins since the start of their three consecutive matches against nationally ranked opponents. Unfortunately for UCLA, it couldn’t find the back of the net.

“I’ve been incredibly proud of the progression we’ve made from week to week, that performance today is a significant step beyond where we were a week ago and so we’re making good progress,” Jorden said. “It’s hard because you don’t get a result and it’s frustrating for the players. But the belief has to be there in seeing the progression that we’re making, and how competitive we are against teams that are in the top-10 in the country.”

Sophomore defender Constantinos Michaelides – who made his first appearance of the season Sunday – said while the players are frustrated by the losses, there are lots of positives to take away from the progress they have made.

“It’s tough mainly because it’s been two or three consecutive losses we’ve been trying to overcome. But I think we’ll have to look it game by game, and we know that we are getting better,” Michaelides said. “Today, I personally think that we got a lot better, we found the spots, we did what coach wants us to do, and I think that goals and the winning streak will come at some point.”

UCLA will get a chance to start that winning streak as it travels travel north to face off against California on Saturday.