Stanford vs. UCLA Women's Soccer Quarterfinal Breakdown
Stanford and UCLA have pretty much dominated the competition up to this point in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal have outscored their opponents 8 to 1, while the Bruins have outscored their opponents 9 to 0. But all those numbers can be thrown out the window. These are two teams that know each other very well. The Bruins first loss of the regular season came at the hands of Stanford. The Pac-12 rivals played just that one game this season. Back on October 28th UCLA took an early 1-0 lead, but gave up two quick goals in the last 15 minutes of the contest to lose 2-1.
Stanford is getting a lot of production from forwards Courtney Verloo, Chioma Ubogagu and Alex Doll during the tournament and this will be the most potent group of strikers that UCLA has seen since the last time they faced the Cardinal. Despite the big wins, the Bruins had not been getting goals from superstar Zakiya Bywaters until the third round of tournament. It is nice that UCLA has other scoring options, and Bywaters is always a threat to setup her teammates, but they need Bywaters to find the back of the net. And that is what she did twice against San Diego State’s superb defense. If Bywaters can keep it up, UCLA has a shot of pulling off the road upset over the reigning national champions.
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