Virginia stuns top seed UCLA in quarterfinals
- by Soccer America , Nov 29, 2014
Like last year, the defending national champion fell to a No. 2 regional seed in the quarterfinals. Last year, the victim was North Carolina, falling to UCLA, 1-0, in overtime. This year, the Bruins fell to the Cavs, who dropped to a No. 2 regional seed despite their current record of 22-2-0.
On Friday, a pair of Georgians, Emily Sonnett from Marietta and U.S. international Morgan Brian from St. Simons Island, scored off deflections for Virginia, which built up a 2-0 lead and held off the Bruins, whose lone goal was scored by Caprice Dydasco in the 74th minute. The Bruins controlled possession for most of the remainder of the game but only managed one shot on goal in the final 15 minutes.
The loss was just the second in two seasons for UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell, a UVa grad.
“Giving up that second goal against a team like Virginia, a lot of teams would throw in the towel right there,” she said. “But our girls, they just fight so hard. Getting that one back, we still had 16 minutes to play, and last year we tied it up with six minutes to play. We always know we can score and have a chance to score. But Virginia defended really well tonight. They double downed really well and got numbers around the ball.”
The match was the final for UCLA senior class, one of the greatest in the history of the women's college game. Nine seniors started for the Bruins: Katelyn Rowland, who broke NCAA records for both single-season (19) and career (55) shutouts, Ally Courtnall, Abby Dahlkemper, Megan Oyster, Sarah Killion, Kylie McCarthy, Sam Mewis, Rosie White and Dydasco. Mewis and Killion both have spent time with the U.S. national team in 2014, Rowland was the starting U.S. keeper at the 2014 U-20 Women's World Cup, while White is a New Zealand international.
Virginia will play the winner of Saturday's Texas A&M-Penn State game in the College Cup semifinals on Dec. 5 in Boca Raton, Fla.
“We felt we could win the game, but we knew it would take a monumental effort and we got that tonight,” said Cavs coach Steve Swanson. “I thought our defense was fantastic, as we bent but didn’t break. We limited their chances and took advantage of the ones we created. You are not going to beat this team by scoring one goal, they are just too good, so scoring two tonight was crucial. Our whole team was fantastic and we needed to be to beat the best. That is a team that is absolutely loaded with talent who are great people too. It is tough that one of us has to go out at this stage. I am just so proud of how our kids performed in a difficult environment after a long trip.”
Nov. 28 in Los Angeles
UCLA 1 Virginia 2. Goals: Dydasco (Killion) 74; Sonnett (Doniak) 33, Brian 71.
UCLA -- Rowland, Dydasco, Dahlkemper, Oyster, Courtnall, Mewis, Alvarado, Killion, McCarthy, White, Smith. Subs: Kaskie, Miranda, Lavrusky, Jenkins, Cerda, Goralski.
Virginia -- Stearns, Reid, McNabb, Iordanou, Sonnett, Brian, Torres, Colaprico, Doniak, Ratcliffe, Reuther. Subs: Shaffer, Latsko.
Att.: 1,632.
