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Men’s soccer looks to maintain its winning streak for season openers

Redshirt senior midfielder Andrew Paoli has the chance to finish his Bruin career undefeated in season openers as UCLA men’s soccer gears up for the start of its season Thursday against Lipscomb. (Jeremy Chen/Daily Bruin)

Men's soccer


Lipscomb
Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m.

Wallis Annenberg Stadium
UCLA LIVE STREAM-2

By Jake Greenberg-Bell

Aug. 26, 2021 4:51 p.m.

It’s been almost a decade since the Bruins last lost a season opener.

With a blank record and revamped roster, UCLA men’s soccer will have a chance to continue that streak as it takes the field against Lipscomb on Thursday at Wallis Annenberg Stadium in its first game of the 2021 season.

The Bruins come into their season opener riding two shutout exhibition wins and a history of success in inaugural matches, having not lost one since 2012 while outscoring opponents in those matches by a margin of 19-6.

Redshirt senior midfielder Andrew Paoli – who has started in the past two openers – said the first game is especially crucial.

“(A first game of the season) is pretty important because we want to start 1-0 and we want to start off really strong and not dig ourselves into a hole,” Paoli said. “It’s really important for the team confidence and just the season overall to try to get off to a good start.”

Thursday’s contest will be the first matchup between the Bruins and the Bisons since at least 1998. Last year, Lipscomb – a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference – finished the season 6-5-2 overall but managed only one win in conference play, one fewer than the Bruins.

With no recent history playing the Bisons, nor a single shared opponent between the two teams last season, the Bruins will be relatively in the dark when it comes to their opponent. But UCLA faced a similar situation with the two teams it faced and beat in its two exhibition matches.

Redshirt junior defender AJ Vasquez said the fact that the team doesn’t have a history against Lipscomb will only motivate UCLA more to live up to its pedigree.

“These two past games, we didn’t really know what to expect either,” Vasquez said. “It made us energized and made us up for the task because we came out 110%. … There is no idea of who (Lipscomb is), so it gives us maybe a little bit of a chip on our shoulder to say you know what, we don’t know who they are, but they definitely know who we are.”

Along with taking on a new team, UCLA’s five new recruits, who make up the No. 4 recruiting class in the nation, will have a chance to make their debuts at Wallis Annenberg Stadium on Thursday.

Last year, the team’s new players immediately played a role over the course of the season. In the first game of last year’s season, the Bruins’ starting 11 featured four new recruits. Of those three, two went on to record the most minutes overall for UCLA – then-freshman defender Tommy Silva and then-junior transfer defender Ahmed Longmire.

Coach Ryan Jorden said he expects the underclassmen to continue to play a large role in the team but even some of his younger players like Silva have already amassed a significant amount of experience.

“If you look at the group that we’ve now started a couple times out, certainly we have some experienced players in that starting 11, but we’re also starting six guys that are sophomore or below,” Jorden said. “The flip side of it is the other guys are really massively experienced, the juniors and seniors have played in a ton of games, … and even some of the young guys, Grayson Doody, Tommy Silva, … same thing, they’ve got a lot of experience already.”

For Jorden and the Bruins, the slate is wiped clean as they take the field Thursday night and have the opportunity to win in front of a live and in-person home crowd for the first time since Nov. 2019.

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Jake Greenberg-Bell | Sports reporter
Greenberg-Bell is currently a Sports reporter. He was previously a contributor on the men's soccer, women's soccer and men's volleyball beats.
Greenberg-Bell is currently a Sports reporter. He was previously a contributor on the men's soccer, women's soccer and men's volleyball beats.
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