Rebuilding after suffering heavy losses — six players were selected among the first 19 picks of the 2015 NWSL Draft — UCLA dropped its 2015 opener as Long Beach State earned a 1-0 decision in frontof a 49er record crowd of 2,232.
The 49ers scored the game-winner midway through the second half on a shot by Vania Robles. The Bruins’ bestchance came when an Amber Munerlyn shot hit the crossbar in the 83rd minute.
“If you look at the stats, I think we should have won, but Idon’t think we necessarily deserved to win,” said UCLA head coach Amanda Cromwell. “We didn’t have the fight and the grit that we needed to have. It turned intoa grind-it-out kind of game, and we didn’t grind it out.”
Women’s Top 25 Schedule, Week 1:
FRIDAY, AUGUST21
New Mexico 1 No. 1 Florida State 3.
— The Seminoles started five freshmen — Megan Connolly,Holly Fritz, Kaycie Tillman, Natalia Kuikka and Macayla Edwards — and Kuikka scored the first goal in 12th minute.
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Hawaii 1 No. 3Stanford 2.
— Late goals by Andi Sullivan and freshman Alana Cook rescued the Cardinal after it had fallenbehind in the 31st second.
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No. 19 UCF 0 No. 4 Florida 2.
Freshman Mayra Pelayo scored on her first shot, a left-footed 22-yard strike, and a header from Savannah Jordan in the 61st minute pushed the Gators leadto 2-0 before 1,126 fans in Orlando.
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No. 5 Penn State 2 Hofstra 1.
Long Beach State 1 No. 6 UCLA 0.
No. 7 North Carolina 3 Weber State 0.
Alexa Newfield, who transferred from Georgia in 2013 but has been plagued by injuries, tallied a pair of goals, her first in a Tar Heel uniform, on theopening day of the Carolina Nike Classic before 3,088 fans at Fetzer Field.
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No. 8 Notre Dame 6 Valparaiso 0.
No. 9 West Virginia 2 SIU-Edwardsville0.
Indiana 1 No. 10 Virginia Tech 2.
No. 11 Texas Tech 0 No. 13 USC 1
Cincinnati 1 No. 12 DePaul 2.
— Ana Greik, who had been denied by the post earlier in the second half, scored the winning goal with 50 seconds left in the Blue Demons’dramatic 2-1 victory over Cincinnati.
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No. 14 BYU 2 No. 16 California 0.
— The Cougars wonon goals by Elena Medeiros and Ashley Hatch with two of their three shots in the game.
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No. 15 South Carolina 4 Northeastern 1.
Chelsea Drennan tallied a career-high four points (one goal, two assists) for the No. Gamecocks, who drew a crowd of 5,875.at StoneStadium.
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No. 17 Kentucky 1 No. 18 Washington 0.
No. 20 Clemson vs. Texas-canceled.
— The Aggies rallied from 2-1 down at the half on three goals off Haley Pounds cornerkicks, two by McKayla Paulson and the third by freshman Kate Hajdu, who also scored in the first half.
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James Madison 3 No. 23 Georgetown 4.
No. 24 Wisconsin 2 WesternMichigan 1.
— McKenna Meuer scored the game-winning goal in the 106th minute, flicking in a long throw-in from Micaela Powers for the decisive header.
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No. 25 Pepperdine 1 Cal State Northridge0.
Elsewhere …
Junior Brittney Reed scored six goals to lead Kennesaw State to a 12-0drilling of Alabama A&M at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.