University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Washington State
UCLA Women's Soccer Begins Pac-12 Play Friday
September 19, 2018 | Women's Soccer
No. 8 UCLA (5-1-1) vs. #14 Washington State (7-0-0)
Venue: Wallis Annenberg Stadium (2,145)
Date/Time: Friday, Sept. 21, 2018, 8:00 p.m. PT
Television: Pac-12 Networks
TV Talent: J.B. Long (play-by-play), Tammy Blackburn (analyst)
Internet Radio: uclabruins.com
Radio Talent: Nick Koop
Live Stats: uclalivestats.com
Tickets: $10 adults / $5 military & youth (3-12)
PAC-12 OPENER
After going 5-1-1 in non-conference play, No. 8 UCLA opens Pac-12 play at home against No. 14 Washington State (7-0-0) on Friday, Sept. 21 at 8pm. The Cougars are one of six unbeaten and untied teams in the nation.
SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Washington State is unbeaten through seven games and has outscored its opponents, 18-4, on the year. Senior Maddy Haro leads the nation in assists with eight, and junior Morgan Weaver ranks third in the Pac-12 with five goals scored. Weaver is also fifth in points with 12. Ella Dederick has played the majority of minutes in goal and has two shutouts and a 0.41 goals against average.
THE SERIES WITH WSU
UCLA leads the overall series with Washington State, 17-4-4, but the Cougars took last year's contest, 1-0, in Pullman, thanks to a fourth-minute goal by Maegan O'Neill. The loss was UCLA's first of the season. The Bruins are 10-1-2 all-time at home against WSU, with the lone loss coming in UCLA's first season in 1993.
PLAY WITH PRIDE
In support of diversity and inclusion and student-athletes and coaches of all sexual orientations, the Bruins will be wearing rainbow laces at Friday's game. The show of support is part of a initiative with the United Soccer Coaches, during the Second Annual Play with Pride Week.
LAST WEEK
UCLA took down Loyola Marymount and San Diego State on the road last week by identical 3-0 scores. The Bruin defense held both teams to zero shots on goal. Six different players scored goals for UCLA - Jessie Fleming, Chloe Castaneda and Kennedy Faulknor at LMU and Hailie Mace, Karina Rodriguez and Delanie Sheehan scoring at San Diego State. The goals by Fleming and Castaneda were their first of the season, and the goals by Faulknor and Rodriguez were the first of their career. Lauren Brzykcy recorded her first career solo shutout against LMU, and Teagan Micah picked up her third shutout of the year against San Diego State.
BRUIN DEBUTS
Five Bruin players made their collegiate debuts in the Loyola Marymount game Sept. 13. Seeing the pitch in an official game for the first time were junior Maki Umehara; redshirt freshmen Issy Bellinghausen, Dani Satterwhite and Hannah Sharts; and true freshman Olivia de Moraes. Umehara, Bellinghausen, Satterwhite and Sharts also played in the game at San Diego State.
MACE SELECTED AS CANDIDATE FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD
Senior forward/defender Hailie Mace has been selected as one of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, which is awarded to a senior student-athlete who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. The candidates will be narrowed down to 10 finalists midway through the regular season and placed on the official ballot. The winner will be announced the Women's College Cup in December. Mace is the only returning first-team All-American on the nominee list. In 2017, she scored a team-best and career-high 15 goals and 33 points. This season she leads the team in scoring with eight points despite having missed three games while on national team duty.
RODRIGUEZ NAMED PAC-12 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF WEEK
Sophomore Karina Rodriguez was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week for Sept. 18, capturing her first career award and the Bruins' 73rd all-time weekly honor. Rodriguez led the Bruin defense to two shutout victories last week, helping UCLA hold each opponent to zero shots on goal. In UCLA's 3-0 win at LMU on Thursday, the Bruin defense limited the Lions to just three shots, and San Diego State only had one in the Bruins' 3-0 win, the one shot coming in the final 65 seconds of play. Additionally, Rodriguez scored her first collegiate goal with a strike from 10 yards out in the final 45 seconds of the first half at San Diego State.
MICAH MOVES INTO TOP 5
With the victory at San Diego State, junior goalkeeper Teagan Micah has moved into UCLA's all-time Top 5 in career wins with 37, tying Chante' Sandiford. The week prior, Micah moved into the Top 5 in career saves with 170 and is just seven away from catching No. 4 CiCi Peterson, who made 177 saves from 1998-2001. Micah is also in the Top 5 with 21 career shutouts and needs five more to catch Peterson.
MAINSTAYS
With UCLA's lineup in flux early due to national team assignments and injuries, only three players have started every game this season - defenders Kaiya McCullough and Karina Rodriguez and midfielder Delanie Sheehan. Rodriguez leads the team with 620 minutes played, followed by McCullough with 589 and Sheehan with 524. Seven other Bruins have played in all seven games - Anika Rodriguez, Chloe Castaneda, Kennedy Faulknor, Olivia Athens, Julia Hernandez, Sunny Dunphy and Viviana Villacorta.
NEW HOME
After playing home games at Drake Stadium from 2000-17, the UCLA soccer teams have moved into a new home, Wallis Annenberg Stadium. The stadium, which seats 2,145, is located at the previously-named North Athletic Field, where UCLA played selected home games from 1967-99. The new stadium was made possible thanks to a $5 million lead gift from the Annenberg Foundation. The just-completed first phase of the stadium project includes grandstand seating and press box on the west side, a Daktronics LED video board and Musco Sports lighting. Future phases of the stadium project may include expanded stadium seating, a training room, student-athlete locker room, coaches' locker rooms, meeting spaces, ticketing space, and a new press box. UCLA won its first game in the new stadium in dramatic fashion on Aug. 17, with Hailie Mace scoring the game-winning goal with two seconds remaining in a 1-0 win over Long Beach State.
FOUR ON MAC HERMANN TROPHY WATCH LIST
Four members of the UCLA women's soccer team have been selected to the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List for 2018, including 2017 finalist Jessie Fleming and 2017 semifinalist Hailie Mace. Also earning selection to the watch list are All-Region honorees Kaiya McCullough and Ashley Sanchez. The MAC Hermann Trophy, presented by World Wide Technology, is the most prestigious individual award in college soccer and is presented annually to the most outstanding male and female players of the year.
BRUINS EARN PRESEASON AWARDS
Five Bruins were selected by TopDrawerSoccer.com for its preseason awards. Junior midfielder Jessie Fleming made the Preseason Best XI first team, senior forward Hailie Mace was selected to the second team, and junior defender Kaiya McCullough and sophomore forward Ashley Sanchez were named to the third team. Midfielder Maricarmen Reyes earned a spot on the Freshman Best XI team.
THREE BRUINS PLAY IN UNDER-20 WORLD CUP
UCLA had three players in France in August for the FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup. Sophomores Ashley Sanchez and Viviana Villacorta represented the U.S., which went 1-1-1 in group play. Sanchez scored a goal, and Villacorta had two assists in a 6-0 victory over Paraguay. Freshman Maricarmen Reyes' Mexico squad went 1-2-0 in group play. All three Bruins started in all three games.
NATIONAL TEAMS
UCLA has a plethora of national team players on its 2018 squad, including five who have earned call-ups to the full national team - Hailie Mace and Ashley Sanchez (U.S.), Jessie Fleming and Kennedy Faulknor (Canada), and Teagan Micah (Australia). Mace has two caps with the senior national team, Fleming has 51, and Faulknor has four. Three Bruins played at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup this summer - Sanchez, Viviana Villacorta and Maricarmen Reyes. Two others - Delanie Sheehan and Karina Rodriguez - were on the U.S. U-20 squad at the 2018 CONCACAF Championships. and nine more have played with various U.S. Youth National Teams in their career - Olivia Athens (U-18), Lauren Brzykcy (U-17), Marley Canales (2018 U-23s, 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup), Chloe Castaneda (U-17), Maddi Desiano (U-19), Sunny Dunphy (U-19), Jacey Pederson (U-19), Kaiya McCullough (U-19), and Anika Rodriguez (U-23). In addition, Julia Hernandez played with the Spanish U-17 National Team, Olivia de Moraes with the Brazilian U-17 team and Shana Flynn with the Canadian U-20s.
BRUINS TO PLAY FOR NWSL CHAMPIONSHIP
Five of UCLA's 14 players in the NWSL in 2018 are still alive as the NWSL season comes to an end on Saturday with the UCLA-heavy North Carolina Courage playing Portland FC in the championship match. The five Bruins on the NWSL Shield-winning Courage are Abby Dahlkemper, Darian Jenkins, Sam Mewis, Katelyn Rowland and McCall Zerboni. Dahlkemper and Mewis started in the Courage's 2-0 semifinal win over Chicago on Sept. 18, with Mewis scoring the final goal in the 2-0 victory. The Championship match will take place in Portland and will be televised live on Lifetime at 1:30 pm Saturday. Dahlkemper, Mewis, Rowland and Zerboni were on the Western New York Flash's 2016 NWSL Championship squad, along with Taylor Smith (now with Washington Spirit).
GIRL POWER
UCLA features an all-female coaching staff, led by head coach Amanda Cromwell, who ranks among the nation's Top 25 winningest active coaches with 308 career wins and a .705 winning percentage at the start of the season. Cromwell's assistant coaches are two-time Olympian Jenny Bindon, Sam Greene and volunteer assistant Jane Alukonis. Cromwell, who was inducted into the inaugural class of the Annandale High School Athletic Hall of Fame last weekend, is a former U.S. National Team player who was a member of the U.S. team at the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup and an alternate for the 1996 Olympic team.
INSTA-LEADERS
UCLA women's soccer leads all collegiate soccer teams, men or women, in Instagram followers, boasting 34.4k followers. The Bruins are also in the Top 5 in NCAA women's soccer in Twitter followers with 15.2k. Follow UCLA Women's Soccer at @UCLAWSoccer on both Instagram and Twitter and /UCLAWSoccer on Facebook.
LOOKING AHEAD
A rematch of the 2017 NCAA Championship game is next for the Bruins, who play at top-ranked Stanford on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 8pm.
STAY CONNECTED
Download the UCLA Bruins Mobile App to your device, free of charge, to stay up-to-date on all things UCLA Athletics. The official app of UCLA Athletics allows fans to receive in-game stats and live updates during events. Fans can also sign up to receive push notifications for game results and news. When searching iTunes or Google Play, use the term "UCLA Bruins" for more direct access.
