After a roller coaster season, the No.17 Stanford women’s soccer team (15-6-1) ended its season with a 2-0 loss to No. 2 UCLA (20-1-2) in the NCAA tournament round of 16 at Drake Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The Cardinal came into the match off of a 1-0 overtime victory against South Carolina Friday night, but the momentum was not enough to stop the Pac-12 champion Bruins, who beat Stanford 2-1 in overtime during the regular season.
UCLA first scored in the 13th minute on a give-and-go play between sophomore midfielder Kodi Lavrusky and junior midfielder Sam Mewis that ended in Lavrusky placing a shot past freshman goalkeeper Jane Campbell inside the far post.
In the 85th minute Mewis assisted again on a through ball to sophomore forward Taylor Smith, sealing Stanford’s fate.
Stanford was outshot 8-3 by UCLA, but had several solid scoring opportunities throughout the game, including a shot by junior forward Taylor Uhl in the 25th minute that forced a kick save by junior goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland. Uhl remained in the starting rotation for the third match in a row, and continued to be a go-to player after scoring Stanford’s only two goals of the tournament in the team’s preceding matches.
As the intensity increased in the second half, the Cardinal had two more shots on goal, one by junior midfielder/forward Chioma Ubogagu and one by fifth-year senior forward Courtney Verloo, but both attempts failed to convert.
It’s a disappointing finish to the season for a team that had won the Pac-12 Championship four times consecutively before this year and had lost no earlier than the NCAA semifinals since 2007. This was the 16th season in a row in which the Cardinal reached the postseason.
Sunday also marked the end of the collegiate career for fifth-year seniors Verloo and Aly Gleason, as well as for seniors Kendall Romine, Natalie Griffen, Emily Oliver, Sydney Payne and Shelby Payne. In the past five seasons, the Cardinal has gone 109-10-6 under head coach Paul Ratcliffe. Six of those losses occurred in this season alone.
The Bruins will now face defending national champion North Carolina in the quarterfinals in Chapel Hill on Nov. 30. The Tarheels are responsible for UCLA’s only loss so far this season.
Contact Fiona Noonan at fnoonan ‘at’ Stanford.edu.