UCLA Women’s Soccer Dominate SDSU in San Diego
College soccer season kicks off and there are already teams that are clearly dominant and are looking to conquer their opponents. UCLA Women’s Soccer closed out a commanding performance over SDSU on the Montezuma Mesa with a 5-0 Victory in the Bruins’ season opener. Darian Jenkins recorded her first career hat trick in the win at the SDSU Sports Deck along with senior Amber Munerlyn providing a highlight reel moment to bring the scoreline to conclude the night.
College Soccer News: Darian Jenkins recorded her first career hat trick in an eight-minute span in the first half as UCLA rolled to a 5-0 victory at San Diego State in the Bruins’ season opener.
Prior to Jenkins’ hat trick, the Bruins had run into some tough luck, with Julia Hernandez hitting the left post in the 14th minute and the crossbar in the 19th minute, along with Anika Rodriguez hitting the right post in the 29th minute. But Jenkins quickly turned things around, scoring her first of three goals at 30:48 on a hard-angled shot after Rodriguez sent her a through ball up the middle. Jenkins struck again at 34:07 after a cross from Zoey Goralski, and she completed the trifecta four minutes later with an 18-yard shot into the right corner.
The Bruins went into halftime leading 3-0 and kept the level of excellence up even with a mostly new lineup to start the second half. Hernandez was finally rewarded for her play in the 51st minute, heading in a shot from a Gabrielle Matulich cross for her first goal as a Bruin. Bruin senior Amber Munerlyn provided the highlight reel moment at 75:20, taking a pass from Kaiya McCullough and backheeling it to herself before lofting the shot into the upper left corner for the Bruins’ fifth goal.
Freshman goalkeeper Teagan Micah earned the shutout, making two saves, including a big acrobatic save at the end of the first half.
“Tonight was a great way to start a season,” said UCLA head coach Amanda Cromwell. “Darian coming out and getting a hat trick was huge. It was a fun game to watch and to see our players perform. We scored a bunch of different ways, with three different players. It’s a game that’s fun to play because the movement is so good, and the communication was great in the back. We limited their chances, with Teagan getting the shutout and the one big save that she needed to make. The rest of the backline really worked hard to prevent shots.”
“All around it was a great team effort,” Cromwell continued. “It was a good test; this is a good team, and going forward we’ll see some things we need to work on, but we’re going to get some confidence from this game.”
UCLA returns to action on Monday with a home scrimmage against Beijing Normal. The match will take place at Drake Stadium at 7pm.
Source/Photo Credit: UCLA Athletics
