UCLA Women’s Soccer Edge Long Beach in Final Preseason Match
UCLA women’s soccer prepares to kick off conference play following a 2-1 win against Long Beach State. The Bruins play on Thursday with a home game against Arizona State on a night that they will honor their Olympians at the game, including Jessie Fleming of Canada and goalkeeper coach Aline Reis of Brazil.
College Soccer News: No. 11 UCLA women’s soccer (6-2-0) concludes non-conference play with a 2-1 victory over Long Beach State (4-4-1) on Sunday night. Amber Munerlyn tallied the Bruins’ goal in the first half, while Darian Jenkins recorded the game-winner. Anika Rodriguez notched two assists on the night.
Munerlyn opened up the scoring in the 15th minute to give the Bruins the early lead. UCLA went into the half with a 1-0 lead, holding Long Beach State to just one shot in the half.
Beach grabbed an early second-half goal in the 48th minute off a Tori Bolden strike that edged UCLA goalkeeper Teagan Micah.
The Bruins regained the lead in the 57th minute on Jenkins’ team-leading sixth goal of the season. Rodriguez tallied her second assist of the night setting up Jenkins for the tap-in finish.
Micah’s strong performance helped keep out a resilient Beach side, including a series of saves in the closing seconds of the match.
“We battled well,” said UCLA head coach Amanda Cromwell. “I thought we played really well in the first half. Our possession was good, and we got the goal. But these are the kind of games where you really want to get another goal, and we knew Long Beach was a team that battles and is dangerous in the attack. We gave up a goal in the second half, but less than 10 minutes later we got the go-ahead goal. And that’s what’s important: if you give up a goal you have to not lose your focus.”
UCLA begins Pac-12 Conference play on Thursday with a home game against Arizona State at 7 p.m. PT The Bruins will honor their Olympians at this game, including Jessie Fleming, who won Olympic bronze for Team Canada, and goalkeeper coach Aline Reis, who represented host team Brazil.
Photo Credit: UCLA Athletics
