This post was updated Nov. 23 at 5:59 p.m.

A sudden death overtime goal in the first round of the NCAA tournament marked the end of the Bruins’ inaugural season in the Big Ten.

“It’s definitely heartbreaking,” said graduate student defender Nico Cavallo.

UCLA men’s soccer (7-6-6, 3-4-3 Big Ten) fell to UC Santa Barbara (11-5-4, 4-2-3 Big West) on Thursday night at Wallis Annenberg Stadium. The Bruins went scoreless and were eliminated in their first game of the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

After reaching overtime tied 0-0, Gauchos forward Nicolas Wilumsen received the ball in the box and fired a shot to the upper right of sophomore goalkeeper Wyatt Nelson, putting the game away.

“We had a full 90 minutes to go out and get a goal, and we just weren’t able to do that,” Cavallo said. “So just a little bit of frustration, little bit of disappointment.”

Santa Barbara will go on to face No. 16 Stanford in the second round of the tournament.

To start the match, Santa Barbara dominated the possession in the first 10 minutes. The Gauchos hit the post and the crossbar in succession, and recorded three shots to the Bruins’ zero.

Graduate student defender Youri Senden said he was expecting a high press based on what the Bruins learned when the two teams met during the spring exhibition season.

“We knew it was coming. They were going to press hard, especially in the beginning,” Senden said. “It felt like, in the beginning, it was kind of hard for us to deal with it. But as the game was going, I think we took our moments to play out of it or use the longer ball.”

The Bruins got their first chance of the night in the 15th minute when Cavallo broke through on the left side of the field, drawing the Gaucho’s defenders with him. He pulled off a cross to wide-open junior forward Nikolaj Rojel, whose low shot was saved by Gaucho’s goalkeeper David Mitzner.

Following a shaky moment on defense with Nelson giving the ball away in the 22nd minute, coach Ryan Jorden subbed in redshirt senior forward Jose Contell and sophomore defender Philip Naef.

“We just wanted a more dynamic feeling up front,” Jorden said. “I thought that’s when we started to get a hold of the game a little bit more, and I think those two things coincide with each other.”

UCLA came out for the second half with the same lineup and through 33 minutes, the teams traded shots back and forth – each adding three shots to their tally.

In the 72nd minute Gaucho midfielder Ethan Senter received the ball on the edge of the 6-yard box but skied his shot just over the bar.
Santa Barbara led the shot count again in the second half, before both teams turned to sudden death overtime.
The result marks the end of the Bruins’ first season in the Big Ten. UCLA – one of six teams to make it into the NCAA tournament from the conference – was the first to be eliminated.

Jordan said his message to his team after the loss was about focusing on what matters most.

“Finality of seasons suck, and everybody but one team ends up with it,” Jordan said. “The most important thing is for them just to understand I put the seven seniors in the middle at the end because that’s their last time with us. And so you want the guys to put their arms around them and hug them in the moment and enjoy the fact that they got the opportunity to be together as a team with those guys.”