The Bruins will close out their opening weekend with a repeat of last year’s – this time in Westwood.

No. 21 UCLA men’s soccer (1-0) will face No. 18 James Madison (0-0-1) at Wallis Annenberg Stadium on Sunday in its second game of the regular season following an opening 2-0 win over No. 11 Loyola Marymount.

JMU kicked off its season with a scoreless draw against Cal State Northridge, who UCLA faced in its second preseason exhibition match. The Dukes and the Matadors earned a combined 10 cards, including a red card resulting from a second yellow to JMU forward Evan Southern.

The Dukes are featured on the Bruins’ opening weekend schedule for the second consecutive year, with last year’s contest resulting in the Bruins’ first loss of the season.

The lone goal in the 2023 1-0 away loss’ came from forward Balint Kocso for one of his three goals on the year, with the Bruins unable to bury chances off 11 shots and six corner kicks.

Three of the Dukes’ top five goal scorers from last season have returned to this year’s roster, in addition to Kocso.

Last year’s loss was preceded by a 4-1 win over Virginia Tech.

“We started off really well last season,” said junior midfielder Cam Wilkerson during preseason.

He added that being at home for the first five games of this season has advantages, with his new teammates excited to feature in front of the home fans.

And feature they did, with eight new Bruins making their debuts in Thursday’s season opener against LMU, including graduate student midfielder Edrey Caceres, who buried two free kick goals for the Bruins.

Half of coach Ryan Jorden’s starting backline made their debuts, with graduate student defenders Nico Cavallo at left back and Youri Senden at center back, while the other half brought Bruin experience with senior Pablo Greenlee at right back and senior Pietro Grassi at center back.

“The ability to solve problems through experience is something that’s wonderful,” Jorden said. “I thought that was really good from the get-go.”

The quad of defenders combine for 14 years of collegiate playing time, setting up Jorden’s defense for a year chock full of maturity and calm under pressure.

Overall Jorden said he was happy with how his new players featured, with six of them making an impact.

Junior midfielder Tarun Karumanchi said the team has been working to incorporate the new players.

“It’s the responsibility of some of the older guys to gel them in together,” Karumanchi said. “This season we did it really well. I think we created some good relationships already and it’s just going to keep going.”

In comparison to his team’s performance against LMU, Jorden said he would like his team to remain in more control with and without the ball against JMU.

“It got out of a control a little bit, and in those moments, knowing how to manage the game and we probably didn’t do that well enough,” Jorden said. “That’s the best part is we can look at the video and try to get solutions.”

The Bruins and the Dukes will kick off at 7 p.m.