UCLA continues its impressive unbeaten streak as they dominated Harvard 7-0, and scored a late goal in the 88th minute by Pac-12 Player of the Year Sam Mewis to advance with a 1-0 win over Pepperdine in the Sweet 16. The Bruins head into the quarterfinals with a 44 match unbeaten streak and a streak of 937 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. UCLA will now face its toughest attacking side of the tournament in Virginia in the quarterfinals and this will be a rematch of the National Semifinals when the Bruins advance to the National Championship match by beating the Cavaliers 4-2 in a penalty kick shootout last year. UCLA controlled play very well against the Waves by outshooting them 16-6. But, moving forward, the Bruins are going to have to be more efficient against the Cavaliers backline as they are going to probably need to score at least twice to advance.
Virginia punched their ticket to the quarterfinals with easy wins over Rutgers, 3-0, in the second round, and Kentucky 7-0 in the Sweet 16. The win over the Wildcats is the most lopsided Sweet 16 win since North Carolina beat Purdue 7-0 in 2003. The Cavaliers set the tempo early with two goals in the opening 30 minutes by Morgan Brian and the floodgates opened from there as Virginia outshot Kentucky 22-3 and dominated corner kicks 7-0. Now, the Cavaliers get another shot at UCLA in the quarterfinals and will be looking to atone for the penalty kick shootout loss in the National Semifinals to the Bruins last December. The travel from Charlottesville on Thanksgiving will be a challenge, but Virginia is in their best position to conquer the UCLA obstacle with the quality of attacking players like U.S. National Team member Morgan Brian and Makenzy Doniak is going to test the Bruin backline in a big way. This should be the best match of the quarterfinals if both teams are at their best. This should probably be a 1-1, 2-1 type of match with lots of drama.
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