Thursday, March 28

UCLA women’s soccer returns to first place ranking after 5 years


The UCLA women's soccer team celebrates. The Bruins have claimed the No. 1 ranking in the nation, after starting the season undefeated. (Marc-Anthony Rosas/Daily Bruin)


UCLA flew to North Carolina as the No. 3 team in the country.

It left the Tar Heel State with wins over then-No. 2 Duke and then-No. 1 North Carolina.

No. 1 UCLA women’s soccer (7-0) woke up the morning after returning to Westwood to find itself the unanimous No. 1 team in the country, receiving all eight first-place votes. This marks the Bruins’ return to the top of rankings for the first time since they were ranked No. 1 in 2017 from September 5th to October 3rd.

Sophomore defender Lilly Reale said her team is not letting the pressure that comes with being the top-ranked team in the country affect its play.

“One of the biggest things we’ve said is that pressure is a privilege and having a target on your back doesn’t need to be something that makes you more afraid to play the game,” Reale said. “We go into games confident that we can bring our best selves and rankings are just rankings. At the end of the day, every team is going to bring their best game against us.”

UCLA conquered both Duke and North Carolina thanks to a pair of second half game-winning goals from junior Reilyn Turner. The forward’s performance in the latter game helped the Bruins defeat the then-No. 1 ranked team in the country for the first time since 2019, when they beat No. 1 Florida State.

Coach Margueritte Aozasa – who has plenty of experience coaching the top-ranked team in the country from her time as an assistant with Stanford – said the Bruins are not treating the honor lightly.

“I mean, it’s a privilege, right?” Aozasa said. “There’s only one team in the country that gets to be ranked number one. There’s something to prove every game but I think that’s also why we’re here.”

Although UCLA defeated both Duke and North Carolina, the Bruins were heavily out-possessed by both the Blue Devils and Tar Heels. According to inStat, the blue and gold possessed the ball for 42% and 37% of each game, respectively.

Aozasa said the Bruins are trying to get better with every game, but the current focal point is on offense.

“Last week we had some great attacking moments but on the whole I think we could have been much better offensively,” Aozasa said. “So that’s been our focus as we get training and hopefully for the next few weeks,”

Aozasa added that although the current ranking is validating, the Bruins will not lose sight of their much bigger goals.

“(The message is) just to keep grinding and to make sure that we continue to build momentum for conference and then also for postseason.”

UCLA will finish off its nonconference slate with a game against No. 9 Pepperdine, before it embarks on its Pac-12 schedule which includes No. 9 Stanford and No. 22 Washington.

Sports staff

Fenn is currently a Sports staffer on the baseball beat. He was previously a reporter on the women's soccer beat and a contributor on the beach volleyball and men's and women's golf beats.


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