UCLA
San Diego
No. 1 UCLA Defeats USD 5-0 as Rowland Breaks NCAA Shutout Record
November 15, 2014 | Women's Soccer
The Bruins (19-0-2) scored three goals in the first 12 minutes to put the Toreros (10-8-2) away early. Defender Abby Dahlkemper scored her first goal of the year on a header off a Rosie White corner kick at 5:25, and then Dahlkemper returned the favor and assisted White on her sixth goal of the year from the top of the 18 at 6:51.
UCLA made it a quick 3-0 at 11:35 thanks to a terrific outlet pass by Rowland to Taylor Smith, who blazed up the field, split three defenders and then fired in a golazo from 30 yards out. Rowland earned the assist on the play, the first of her career. The goal was Smith's eighth of the season.
Kylie McCarthy and Sam Mewis added second half goals two and a half minutes apart in the second half to round out the scoring. McCarthy received a through ball from Mewis at the top of the box and shot past goalkeeper Michelle Craft to score her sixth goal in six games at 51:22. Mewis got her sixth goal in her last seven games and her Pac-12-leading 15th overall this season at 53:50 on a penalty kick after McCarthy was taken down in the box.
"Scoring three goals in the first 12 minutes in a first round game was really important," said UCLA head coach Amanda Cromwell. "Any team you let hang around is just going to get more confident. If you give them hope, they're going to believe they can pull off the upset. So we just wanted to get on top of them early, and scoring three goals that quick was great."
Rowland had three saves to earn her NCAA career record 53rd career shutout and her school record 17th shutout of the season.
UCLA extended its unbeaten streak to 42 games and its shutout streak to eight games and 757 minutes.
Up next in the second round next Friday in Los Angeles will be the winner of Saturday's game between Harvard-Central Connecticut State.
