UCLA
Stanford
Bruins Head to Bay Area for NCAA Championship Rematch
September 25, 2018 | Women's Soccer
No. 16 UCLA (5-2-1, 0-1-0) at #1 Stanford (8-0-1, 1-0-0)
Date: Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018
Kickoff Time: 8:00 p.m. PT
Venue: Laird Q. Cagan Stadium
Television: Pac-12 Networks
TV Talent: Kate Scott (play-by-play), Kelly Gray (analyst)
Live Stats: gostanford.com
No. 16 UCLA (5-2-1, 0-1-0) at California (4-4-1, 0-1-0)
Date: Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018
Venue: Edwards Stadium
Kickoff Time: 3:00 p.m. PT
Television: Pac-12 Networks
TV Talent: Kate Scott (play-by-play), Kelly Gray (analyst)
Live Stats: calbears.com
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME REMATCH
The UCLA at Stanford game on Thursday is a rematch of the 2017 NCAA Championship, which was won by the Cardinal, 3-2. The Bruins made a valiant comeback in the game after being down 2-0 at halftime, tying the score on goals by Jessie Fleming and Delanie Sheehan, but Jaye Boissiere put Stanford ahead in the 67th minute, and the Cardinal held on for the win.
MACE, FLEMING BACK ON NATIONAL TEAM DUTY
Bruin starters Hailie Mace (U.S.) and Jessie Fleming (Canada) are expected to participate in the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship to help their respective countries earn a 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup berth. Mace has been named to the 20-player U.S. team, and Fleming is participating in Canada's final camp in Frisco, Texas before the tournament begins in October.
The U.S. is in Group A in Cary, N.C. and will open play on Oct. 4 against Mexico before playing Panama on Oct. 7 and Trinidad & Tobago on Oct. 10. Canada plays in Group B in Edinburg, Texas and will face Jamaica on Oct. 5, Cuba on Oct. 8 and Costa Rica on Oct. 11. The top two teams from each group after round robin play will advance to the semifinals. The top three teams in the tournament will qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with an additional opportunity for the fourth-place team to qualify through a playoff against Argentina.
SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
Top-ranked Stanford (8-0-1, 1-0-0 in the Pac-12) currently holds a 31-game unbeaten streak and has not lost since Aug. 25, 2017. The Cardinal has outscored its opponents, 25-5 this year, with 17 different players scoring at least one point and three with 10 or more points already. Catarina Macario leads Stanford in scoring this year with 12 points (4g, 4a). Last season, Macario led the nation in points (50) and assists (16). Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe graduated from UCLA in 1994 and was a member of the Bruins' 1990 NCAA men's soccer championship squad. The Cardinal leads the overall series with the Bruins, 15-11-2 and has won four straight. UCLA's last win was a 2-1 home victory in 2014, and the Bruins' last win at Stanford came in 2013 when Lauren Kaskie scored her first career goal in double overtime to give UCLA the 2-1 regular season victory.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
California (4-4-1, 0-1-0) is 1-3-1 in its last five games and coming off a 2-1 home loss to Arizona State in the Pac-12 opener. The Golden Bears are led by Abi Kim and Kayla Fong, who each have three goals and seven points. Kim was a teammate of Bruins Ashley Sanchez and Viviana Villacorta at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. UCLA leads the overall series with Cal, 17-5-2 and took last year's contest, 1-0, on a Sanchez goal in the 57th minute. The Bruins have not played in Berkeley in three years, and their last road win against Cal came in 2013, 1-0.
RECORD CROWD
UCLA opened Pac-12 play on Sept. 21 in front of the biggest crowd in Wallis Annenberg Stadium's brief history - 2,496 fans. The Bruins fell to unbeaten Washington State, 1-0, on a counterattack goal by Morgan Weaver in the 61st minute. UCLA outshot the Cougars, 19-6, with nine of its shots saved by goalkeeper Rachel Thompson. Another Bruin shot hit the right post in the eighth minute. The Bruins were playing without Jessie Fleming, who was on national team duty, and Teagan Micah, who was injured during warmups.
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.
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 710 minutes played, followed by McCullough with 679 and Sheehan with 614. Seven other Bruins have played in all eight games - Anika Rodriguez, Chloe Castaneda, Kennedy Faulknor, Olivia Athens, Julia Hernandez, Sunny Dunphy and Viviana Villacorta.
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. Lauren Brzykcy made her debut against Pepperdine, sharing the shutout with Teagan Micah. Brzykcy picked up her first solo shutout against LMU and has posted a 0.40 GAA in three games.
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.
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 started for their respective countries at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup this summer - Sanchez, Viviana Villacorta (U.S.) and Maricarmen Reyes (Mexico). 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.
NWSL CHAMPIONS
Five UCLA women's soccer alumnae won the 2018 NWSL Championship with the North Carolina Courage, who defeated Portland FC, 3-0, in the championship match on Sept. 22. Abby Dahlkemper, Katelyn Rowland and Sam Mewis started and played all 90 minutes for the Courage in the victory, and Darian Jenkins played the final minute. McCall Zerboni, a finalist for the NWSL MVP, was unavailable for the Courage after suffering a broken elbow in a U.S. National Team game earlier in the month. Mewis helped set up the Courage's third goal, Dahlkemper led a stout Courage defense, and Rowland had three saves to earn the shutout. Winning a national championship was nothing new for the Bruin alumnae. Dahlkemper, Rowland, Mewis and Jenkins were all starters on UCLA's 2013 NCAA Championship team, and Dahlkemper, Rowland, Mewis and Zerboni played for the Western New York Flash's 2016 NWSL Championship squad.
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 34.8k 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.
