UCLA Over ‘Noles In Overtime

No one can say the UCLA Bruins had an easy road to their first NCAA Division I College Cup championship.

In the quarterfinals,t hey beat defending champion UNC in overtime, edged #1 ranked Virginia in the semifinals in a penalty kick shootout and defeated Florida State 1-0 in overtime for the title at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC. The [show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’]game was played in cold rainy conditions on a wet field.

It was the first women’s championship game decided in overtime since 2002. The Bruins (22-1-3) finished the season with a 21-game unbeaten streak. They had 15 shutouts during that span, including five of six matches in the NCAA tournament.

Florida State, the ACC champion, finished 23-2-3 and had a nine-game winning streak broken with the loss.

Kodi Lavrusky got the game-winner for the Bruins, scoring in the 97th minute.

Florida State edged Virginia Tech 3-2 in its semifinal match. The Seminoles have been to the College Cup semifinals seven times, including three of the last four seasons, but have never won the championship.

This marked the eighth appearance at the College Cup for UCLA. First-year head coach, Amanda Cromwell, who took over the UCLA program last April, had played in the College Cup as a collegiate player at Virginia.

“This has to be, if you look at who we had to go through to win a national championship, two past national champions (Stanford and UNC) and the overall #1 seed in Virginia and a very good Florida State team, the ACC tournament champion.” said Cromwell.

“If you look at the history books, and look at the RPI of teams we had to play, even San Diego State and Kentucky were very good teams. If you look back, it might be one of the best runs ever.”