Maryland women’s soccer’s road struggles continue in 1-0 loss to No. 4 UCLA

Photo by Rose Fernandes/ Maryland Terrapins. Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics

Approaching the end of the 71st minute in a defensive stalemate, a scoreless tie seemed inevitable. 

But sophomore forward Bella Winn found a crevase near the top left corner of the box and launched a cross-field shot into the far right side of the net, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

While Maryland’s defense minimized No. 4 UCLA’s attack through the majority of the game, the Terps had no response on offense to the Bruins’ suffocating defense. The result was a 1-0 defeat for the Terps on Sunday at Wallis Annenberg Stadium. 

Both offenses were quiet to start the game, playing with a lot of patience and waiting to conjure a scoring opportunity. 

Maryland (6-6-0, 2-3 Big Ten) hardly allowed UCLA to advance near the net, repeatedly finding ways to get in front or slip a foot in toward the ball to disrupt any UCLA (8-2-1, 4-0-1 Big Ten) attempt to reach the penalty box. Despite the Terps’ stout defense, UCLA created four corner kicks in the first half. But the Terps’ defense shut down those scoring opportunities for the Bruins as well.

While the Terps demonstrated some improvement in maintaining offensive possessions through patience, their attack again struggled to find opportunities to take shots at the start of the match. 

But as the game wore on, the Terps showed little ability to flip the field. Any takeaways they captured were quickly turned back over as they tried to take the ball toward UCLA’s goal. 

The Bruins entered Sunday’s contest boasting one of the nation’s best defenses. UCLA displayed its defensive prowess throughout the game, preventing Maryland from recording a shot attempt until the 44th minute. The shot came from redshirt junior forward Kelsey Smith.

In the second half, the Bruins created a scoring opportunity in the 53rd minute. UCLA redshirt senior midfielder Emma Egizii took a shot on goal after finding an opening in front of the net within the penalty box. Egizii’s shot was stopped on the deflection by Maryland redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Faith Luckey, but UCLA sophomore forward Kara Croone appeared to score on the rebound.

Upon replay review, Croone was declared offside as Egizii took the original shot, keeping the game scoreless. 

But roughly 18 minutes later, UCLA beat Luckey on a shot by Winn.

The Bruins quickly threatened Luckey and the Terps’ defense again, only a minute later. As the Bruins charged to the left of the net, taking Luckey out of possession, the ball deflected to the feet of sophomore forward Jordan Geis, who tried to take advantage of Luckey’s absence. But senior forward Delaney DeMartino blocked the shot to keep Maryland within a goal. 

Maryland continued to look for a response to UCLA’s score but was unable to generate a goal. 

The Terps will now return home for a single-game stint against Illinois on Oct. 5, before embarking on a Midwest road trip.