This post was updated Nov. 16 at 10:12 p.m.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
And with temperatures dropping to 50 degrees Fahrenheit in College Park, Maryland, No. 4 seed UCLA men’s soccer (8-6-4, 5-3-2 Big Ten) bulldozed No. 3 seed Michigan (13-2-4, 6-2-2) by a score of 5-0 Sunday afternoon in the Big Ten tournament final. The victory avenges its 3-0 defeat from the regular season Oct. 17 and UCLA’s penalty kick defeat to Michigan in the Big Ten semifinal last season. The 5-0 battering seals an automatic qualification spot for the NCAA tournament.
UCLA’s late-season turnaround – featuring five wins and a draw and a 21-5 score differential over that six-game stretch – has resurrected a season which started slowly, with the Bruins posting their worst first five-game start since at least 1967.
“We knew we had a good team, but even when it’s tough, can they keep fighting together? Can they keep working together? Can they keep being positive together?” said coach Ryan Jorden. “They did those things. It makes you really happy as a coach to know that your group has seen it out. Their relationships are incredible inside the locker room and on the field, and I’m just proud of them.”
[Related: UCLA men’s soccer continues winless streak, falls 3-0 in Michigan shutout]
Redshirt sophomore forward Sergi Solans Ormo dominated the game, scoring a hat trick to break UCLA’s record, earning Player of the Tournament honors.
Michigan outshot UCLA five to three in the first half, but the box score did not tell the whole story, with many of the Wolverines’ shots coming from distance amid windy conditions, drifting wide of Bruin graduate student goalkeeper Kevin Box.
And despite coach Ryan Jorden’s teams typically preferring possession-based match play, it was a pair of headers that put them ahead.
The Bruins found space in the 13th minute to play through freshman midfielder Ander Marticorena. The Spaniard ran onto a through ball in the left channel to cross to Solans Ormo, who turned, controlled the ball and fired from the center of the six-yard box.
And though the Bruins’ top goalscorer cannoned his shot off the crossbar, graduate student midfielder Konstantinos Georgallides jumped alone in the box to head in the rebound.
Georgallides, who has played for three different programs across his college career, said the experience of having competed for a variety of schools helped him push through some of this season’s more challenging moments.
“The adversity that I had to face – the different environments, the different locker rooms – they made me more experienced,” Georgallides said. “They made me be in a situation where I can help the team, not only on the field, but also off the field, to be seen as a leader through my actions and through my words.”
Then, at the 38th minute mark, sophomore defender Shakir Nixon looped a cross into the six-yard box, where Solans Ormo – fresh off being unanimously named a First Team All-Big Ten selection – headed home the cross to double the Bruins’ lead.
Solans Ormo said he has also been powered by facing adversity, including through tearing his ACL his freshman year, playing for bottom-of-the-table clubs while in Spain and the death of his aunt – whom he dedicated the win to – three years ago.
“I know that it was late back home, but they (my family) are always there, helping me through tough moments,” he said. “Everything I do is for my aunt. She passed away three years ago, and she was the person that encouraged me to do everything I do. Everything, every goal that I scored, is for her.”
This season, Michigan has conceded just 13 goals across its 18 conference games, and it had yet to concede more than two in one game. Additionally, the Wolverines had not lost since facing Maryland on Oct. 10.
And yet, when faced with Solans Ormo, its record came crashing down.
Following the halftime break, Georgallides spotted a diagonal run from Solans Ormo into the box, with the Spanish forward staying upright through an attempted tackle from Michigan defender Nolan Miller and firing home from a tight angle. The goal marked his sixth multigoal game, besting his total of three last season at Oregon State.
“Last season I had some difficult moments that I didn’t show up in the important moments in the important games,” Solans Ormo said. “This season was completely different. I think I am more mature, and I know a little more – my body, my mind, my strengths too – and I could demonstrate things here in the important games.”
And Solans Ormo still was not done, capturing a blundered pass from Michigan goalkeeper Isaiah Goldson and then chipping it through the heavy wind from the corner of the 18-yard box and into the corner of the net, marking his 16th goal of the season. The goal put him ahead of his last-season total and makes him the joint second-top scorer in the NCAA, one goal behind Grand Canyon’s Junior Diouf.
It was also the first hat trick in Big Ten tournament final history.
Georgallides scored the Bruins’ fifth of the game – and his fifth of the season – beating two defenders at the edge of the Michigan box and firing into the bottom right-hand corner of the Wolverines’ goal.
The Bruins matched their best total of goals scored and margin of victory in their biggest game of the season. And after a week of sightseeing around Washington, D.C., they will return to Westwood with their own slice of history – their first tournament trophy since moving to the Big Ten.
The win, coupled with spending several days together in Maryland, made for a memorable trip, Jorden said.
“Being on the road is not easy, because guys are doing study hall, they’re keeping up on their stuff. They’re taking a quiz online. They’re having to manage being student-athletes,” Jorden said. “It should be part of what travel like this does, and so I think they really enjoyed it.”
