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Sophomore forward Lindsay Greco slices through LMU defenders in the Bruins’ 4-0 Friday night victory in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. UCLA defeated USC 1-0 Sunday in double overtime in the second round.
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Bruins run through USC, LMU
The UCLA women’s soccer team kicked off Beat ’SC week in the most brutal fashion imaginable Sunday afternoon.
It took two overtimes, 22 shots, two injuries, a missed penalty kick, and nine corner kicks for the No. 3 Bruins to finally put away USC 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA playoffs.
The Golden Goal came in the 103rd minute when sophomore defender Kendal Billingsley collected an oddly bouncing corner kick among a flurry of USC and UCLA bodies to put away the game-winner.
“I was ecstatic, it was a great feeling (to score the game winner),” Billingsley said. “It was a long game. It felt like there was a force field (blocking the USC goal) and to finally get one in was awesome.”
USC’s strategy was painfully obvious.
The Women of Troy eventually dropped into a 5-4-1 formation, essentially playing nine defenders, with a constant stream of substitutions. This strategy was successful thanks in large part to the spectacular play of USC goalie Julie Peterson.
At halftime, the Bruins had outshot the Women of Troy 8-1, but Peterson notched seven saves in the first half and finished the game with 10. The Bruins wound up outshooting USC 22-2.
“The big thing we talked about at halftime was trying not to let them disrupt our rhythm,” UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said. “They were just looking for the counter goal. That sometimes is frustrating because they’re by-passing our midfield.”
In the 22nd minute, midfielder Jill Oakes was fouled hard and twisted her knee and was out for the rest of the afternoon. Nine minutes later senior defender Tracey Winzen sustained a collision and rolled her ankle and also did not return.
The brutality carried over into the second half. In the 54th minute freshman forward Iris Mora was flattened inside the USC goalie box, and UCLA was awarded a penalty kick.
Junior defender Nandi Pryce shot the penalty kick into the right corner, but it was blocked by Peterson.
“For about five or six minutes I was replaying (the missed kick) in my head and thinking ‘if we don’t win this game, I’m going to quit soccer,’” Pryce said. “There was going to have to be some other way for us to win.”
It was a wild game, as the number of UCLA shots that barely missed is too numerous to catalogue, and it seemed that every player who had the ball went down hard into the Drake Stadium turf.
Close to the end of the first overtime, sophomore forward Kim Devine was shoved hard into the ground by a USC defender inside the box, and no foul was called. Drake Stadium erupted into boos.
“Kids just don’t fall without being hit,” Ellis said who engaged in a colorful discussion with the official after the first overtime.
The Bruins had no trouble finishing on Friday night, as they easily put away LMU 4-0. Junior Sarah-Gayle Swanson scored two goals in the first half.
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