It took the Bruins three games to score a goal and six games to get a win.
Heading into Big Ten play, UCLA had just two goals and only one from its coveted forward – redshirt sophomore and 2025 MLS SuperDraftee Sergi Solans Ormo.
But everything has seemingly turned around for the Bruins at the conclusion of the conference regular season.
“We finally got this chemistry that brings us, or brings me, to score a lot of goals. Also my confidence is very high. That’s also important for the team and for myself,” Solans Ormo said. “We finally put all the pieces together, and we show it on the field, and the results are positive.”
With a 4-2 come-from-behind win over No. 15 Washington (10-5-2, 7-3-0 Big Ten) at Husky Stadium in Seattle, UCLA men’s soccer (6-6-4, 5-3-2) secured the fourth and final spot in the Big Ten tournament, greatly improving the team’s chances of reaching the NCAA tournament. The Bruins scored four or more goals for the third game in a row, and Solans Ormo recorded his second hat trick of the year.
After a goal in the 51st minute from Washington midfielder Osato Enabulele – and with No. 25 Indiana simultaneously winning 5-0 over Rutgers – UCLA appeared to be eliminated from postseason play, sitting fifth in the Big Ten standings.
Coach Ryan Jorden said he didn’t want his players to worry about the Indiana game, but on the sideline, his staff was aware it would not be getting any help in the standings.
One minute after assisting on that goal for the Huskies, forward Charlie Kosakoff – who scored his team’s first goal of the night in the 37th minute – received a yellow card on a challenge in the air that forced junior defender Tre Wright out of the game with an injury to the face.
Then, in the 63rd minute, Kosakoff sprinted up the pitch after the ball. Junior forward Oliver Roche made a defensive play to get between Kosakoff and the ball, and the Husky forward chopped Roche – who has missed recent practice time with an ankle injury – down.
“He hit my bad ankle,” Roche said. “I was on the ground, trying to think of something else than the pain. I was wondering why he couldn’t – if he wouldn’t mind – hitting the other ankle.”
Although Roche didn’t realize it at first, the successive second yellow card gave the Bruins a player advantage for the final 27 minutes of the game.
And take advantage the Bruins did.
Jorden said the team was able to learn from its earlier game against Ohio State when UCLA lost, despite playing the vast majority of the game with the player advantage after a red card. He called the team over during an injury stoppage to right the wrongs from that match.
“We went to Ohio State, they went down a man, and we weren’t great. We didn’t do a great job that night of exploiting the fact that they were a man light, and so just wanted to remind them of the things that we learned that day and talk to them specifically about how we were going to try to get implementation this time around,” Jorden said. “Those lessons are obviously incredibly beneficial, and it allowed for us to be able to have a chance to create the opportunities that we did.”
First, Solans Ormo leveled the game. A cross from graduate student defender Schinieder Mimy reached the Bruins’ forward in the box, where he knocked the ball into a Washington defender’s ankle, which sent it trickling into the goal.
But the Bruins needed a win to clinch a spot in the Big Ten tournament.
So next, Roche stepped up.
Sitting just off a defender on the top of the six-yard box, Roche knocked a deflected ball from graduate student midfielder Konstantinos Georgallides into the net, megging the Husky goalkeeper Jadon Bowton in the process.
And Solans Ormo put the cherry on top of the Bruins’ – and his own – performance in the 83rd minute.
Freshman midfielder Zach Mastrodimos stole the ball from Washington and crossed it into the box, where junior midfielder Phillip Naef controlled it out of the air for Solans Ormo, who drove it into the bottom left corner of the goal. The two-goal advantage allowed UCLA to comfortably maintain its lead for the final seven minutes.
“After I scored the fourth goal, I think everybody relaxed a little bit more, and we were more calm, we were more secure about the game that we were playing,” Solans Ormo said.
In the celebration afterward, Solans Ormo’s typical knee-slide celebration didn’t exactly go to plan, as he slipped and faceplanted on the grass. He said he was so tired after achieving his hat trick that he fell to the ground mid-slide.
The Bruins and the Huskies entered the second half tied 1-1 after back-to-back goals in the 35th and 37th minutes, respectively. Solans Ormo’s first goal – a 180-degree turn for a shot – put the Bruins ahead temporarily, until Kosakoff redirected a cross into the goal just through goaltender Kevin Box’s outstretched fingers.
“That’s been part of the growing process for us as the years go on,” Jorden said. “The guys, I don’t think it devastated them in the moment. I thought we were able to come back out and not suffer an immediate second one (goal), where that happened to us earlier in the year,” Jorden said.
UCLA weathered 20 shots from Washington, including six shots on goal.
After a scramble on the goal line in the 24th minute, Mimy cleared the ball off the line with an acrobatic volley. But the clearance ricocheted off a Washington player and into the post before falling to another Washington player who could not deliver a shot attempt. A video review was required to ensure the ball had not crossed the line.
The Bruins recorded four shots on goal – all resulting in goals – alongside 11 total shots.
And before the game, the Huskies honored women’s soccer goalkeeper Mia Hamant, who the University of Washington Athletics Department announced died this week. Hamant was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer in April, according to The Daily, Washington’s student newspaper.
UCLA’s season will continue in College Park, Maryland, at the four-team Big Ten tournament, where it will face No. 1 Maryland in the semifinal next Wednesday.
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