No. 2 Seed UCLA (16-3-3) vs. California Baptist (10-6-3)
NCAA First Round
Date: Friday, Nov. 15, 2024 – 6 p.m. PT
Location: Los Angeles, Calif. (Wallis Annenberg Stadium)
Broadcast: ESPN+
Talent: Graham Metzker, Sophie Wimmer
Live Stats: ncaa.com
Tickets: uclabruins.com/tickets
UCLA BEGINS NCAA TOURNAMENT RUN FRIDAY
After winning the Big Ten Tournament title on Sunday, UCLA (16-3-3) earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will open up tournament play on Friday, Nov. 15 against California Baptist (10-6-3) in the NCAA first round. The match will take place at Wallis Annenberg Stadium at 6 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
UCLA'S NCAA HISTORY
The Bruins, who are making their 28th overall and ninth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, have a 74-21-8 all-time NCAA Tournament record, with a pair of NCAA titles in 2022 and 2013. UCLA has made four College Cup appearances (2022, 2019, 2017 and 2013) in the last 12 seasons and 12 overall. UCLA is a Top 2 seed for the 15th time.
UCLA AGAINST THE NCAA FIELD
UCLA posted an 8-3-3 record against members of the 64-team NCAA Tournament field this season. The Bruins have wins over No. 3 seed Ohio State (1-0), No. 4 seed Penn State (1-0), No. 6 seed Minnesota (3-1), No. 6 seed Rutgers (5-0), No. 7 seed BYU (1-0), Santa Clara (1-0) and Washington (1-0 and 2-0). UCLA's only non-victories of the year came against NCAA teams in No. 1 seed USC (L 0-1), No. 4 seed Penn State (T 0-0), No. 5 seed Kentucky (L 0-2), No. 5 seed Wisconsin (T 0-0), No. 7 seed Pepperdine (L 0-1) and Tennessee (T 0-0).
NCAA EXPERIENCED
The Bruins return 11 players from the 2022 NCAA Championship team, including six starters from the championship game - College Cup Most Outstanding Defensive Player Lilly Reale, Jayden Perry, Lexi Wright, Quincy McMahon, Bridgette Marin-Valencia and Sunshine Fontes - and reserve Sofia Cook.
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
Exactly 100 days into its tenure in the Big Ten Conference, the Bruins captured the school's first Big Ten Championship in any sport after rolling through the tournament with three consecutive shutouts, including a 5-0 win in the final against Rutgers that set a new title game record for goals scored. The Bruins outscored their opponents 8-0 in their three matches. This is the fourth conference championship for graduate student Sunshine Fontes and the third for seniors Quincy McMahon, Jayden Perry, Lilly Reale, Emma Egizii and Lexi Wright. The junior and sophomore classes have each won two conference titles. UCLA entered the Big Ten this season with 14 regular season conference titles.
BRUIN BENCH KEYS BIG TEN TITLE MATCH WIN
UCLA's bench played a huge role in a season-best offensive performance by the Bruins, a 5-0 rout over Rutgers in the Big Ten Tournament championship match. Four reserve players scored for the Bruins - Taylor Cheatham, Jordan Geis, Lily Boyden and Sophie Reale - after Val Vargas opened the match with a seventh-minute goal. Vargas was one of four players who scored their first goals of the year, along with Cheatham, Boyden and Reale. Kara Croone earned her first career point with an assist on the game-winner, as did Milla Shafie, who assisted on the final goal. Geis finished the game with a goal and an assist, and Quincy McMahon supplied two assists, moving her into a tie for eighth on UCLA's all-time assist list with 25. McMahon was also named the Big Ten Tournament's Most Outstanding Player and selected to the All-Tournament Team along with Jayden Perry.
SCOUTING THE LANCERS
California Baptist is making its first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance after winning three games in seven days at the WAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed. Senior captain Jayden Ramirez was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Senior forward Lauryn White leads the Lancers offensively with six goals, and her 13 points are tied for the team lead in scoring with junior forward Morgan Witz, who has a team-high nine assists. The Lancers are coached by Kristen St. Clair. UCLA is 1-0 all-time against CBU, with the Bruins defeating the Lancers, 1-0, at home in 1993.
IN THE RANKINGS
UCLA finishes the regular season ranked No. 9 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and has moved up to No. 2 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll. UCLA vaulted up to No. 9 in the NCAA RPI.
REALE WINS THIRD-STRAIGHT CONFERENCE DEFENDER OF YEAR AWARD
Senior defender Lilly Reale earned her third consecutive conference Defender of the Year award and first in the Big Ten. The two-time All-America and 2022 Honda Award winner was rated the No. 1 player in the nation on Top Drawer Soccer's Midseason Top 100 and leads a UCLA defense that has allowed just seven goals in 22 games. UCLA holds a team goals against average of 0.318, which ranks first in the nation, and has recorded 16 shutouts, a total that is tied for first nationally. Reale was also a first-team All-Big Ten honoree, allowing her to join Lauren Cheney, Abby Dahlkemper and Jessie Fleming as the only Bruins to earn four first-team all-conference honors.
FRASER AWARDED BIG TEN FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Freshman defender Nicki Fraser became UCLA's sixth-ever conference Freshman of the Year and first since Reilyn Turner in 2020. Fraser has started and played in 18 games, leading all Bruin freshmen in games started. She helped the Bruin defense secure 13 shutouts in her 18 games played, including five in a row to start the season. Thanks to her play in the back, UCLA leads the nation in shutouts (16) and goals against average (0.318) and ranks third in shutout percentage (0.727). Fraser scored her first collegiate goal in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, the game-winner in a 1-0 victory over Penn State.
EIGHT BRUINS EARN BIG TEN POSTSEASON HONORS
UCLA placed seven players on the All-Big Ten team and had two on the All-Freshman team in its first season in the conference. Receiving first-team All-Big Ten honors were midfielder Sofia Cook and defender Lilly Reale. Second-team honorees were forward Quincy McMahon, defender Jayden Perry and goalkeeper Ryan Campbell. Named to the third team were midfielder Val Vargas and defender Nicki Fraser. Forward Jordan Geis and Fraser were selected to the All-Freshman team. Reale has earned first-team all-conference honors four times in her career. McMahon and Campbell are three-time honorees. Cook is a two-time all-conference player, and Vargas and Fraser are first-time honorees.
AOZASA EARNS 50TH CAREER WIN IN 60 GAMES
With UCLA's 3-1 win at Illinois on Oct. 13, Bruin head coach Margueritte Aozasa earned her 50th career win in just 60 games. Aozasa, alongside assistants Gof Boyoko and Molly Poletto, won the NCAA Championship in her first year in 2022, winning 22 games. Her career record in three seasons is now 54-7-5.
SHUTOUT CITY
With 16 shutouts in 22 games, UCLA and goalkeeper Ryan Campbell are among the nation's defensive leaders. Campbell, who has played in every minute of every game, ranks first in the nation with 16 shutouts and third with a 0.318 goals against average. The Bruin defense, led by center backs Lilly Reale and Jayden Perry and freshmen outside backs Nicki Fraser and Paloma Daubert, ranks first in team goals against average (0.318), first in shutouts (16) and is third in shutout percentage (0.727). They have more than twice as many shutouts as goals allowed (seven). UCLA began the season with five consecutive shutouts, becoming just the second team in school history to accomplish the feat (the 2014 Bruins started out with six shutouts in a row). Campbell compiled 519 consecutive shutout minutes, just shy of Katelyn Rowland's single-season school record 638-minute shutout streak in 2014.
Campbell, a graduate transfer from Stanford, has moved into second in UCLA's single-season goalkeeping records (16) with her 5-0 shutout against Rutgers, overtaking Katelyn Rowland's 2013 mark of 15. Campbell has her sights set on Rowland's NCAA record of 19 shutouts in 2014. In just one season, Campbell broke into UCLA's Top 10 for career shutouts with 16, ranking eighth. She totaled 19 in two years as a starter at Stanford.
REALE RATED NO. 1
Senior defender Lilly Reale was rated the No. 1 player in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer in its Midseason Player Rankings. Reale has led UCLA's defense to more than twice as many shutouts as goals allowed, as the Bruins have recorded 16 clean sheets and allowed just seven goals. She has also scored one goal, making an 85-yard run and scoring far post to score the game-winner at Cal Poly, and recorded two assists on game-winners against Santa Clara and BYU. Top Drawer Soccer noted, "Whether displaying her outstanding passing range on a cross-field switch, her athleticism on a ball-carrying drive, or her elite defensive instincts on a timely interception, Reale is the best player in college soccer." Reale is a two-time All-American and three-time conference defensive player of the year. In 2022, she won the Honda Sport Award and was named the Most Valuable Defensive Player at the College Cup.
ASSISTS QUEEN QUINCY
Senior defender/forward Quincy McMahon has broken into UCLA's Top 10 for career assists, adding two more to reach 25 in Sunday's Big Ten championship win. McMahon is now tied with Lauren Barnes (2007-10) for eighth on the all-time list and is two away from matching Traci Arkenberg's total of 27. McMahon led the Bruins in assists last season with seven and also totaled seven assists as a freshman in 2021. This season, McMahon ranks first on the team in scoring with 11 points (three goals, five assists). McMahon was named UCLA's Student-Athlete of the Week after scoring the game-winning goal in the Bruins' 1-0 win over Washington on Oct. 5. The week prior, she earned her sixth career conference defensive player of the week honor. After two seasons of earning All-Pac-12 honors as a defender, she was selected to the All-Big Ten second team as a forward.
FONTES MAKES TRIUMPHANT RETURN
Graduate student Sunshine Fontes has made a triumphant return back to play after missing the second half of 2023 with an ACL injury. Seeing her first action of the season at Oregon on Sept. 14, Fontes scored the tying goal in the 80th minute of UCLA's comeback victory. On Sept. 29 against Minnesota, she recorded a pair of assists, including an assist on the game-winner. After nine games as a reserve, Fontes made her first start of the season on Oct. 27 against USC and played in a season-high 48 minutes. Although she did not qualify for the assist, Fontes played a huge role in UCLA's second goal in the Big Ten Tournament match, nutmegging a Scarlet Knight defender before booming a 50-yard ball right on the money for Taylor Cheatham, who scored on a second-chance effort. Fontes' Bruin career began on the sidelines, as her 2019 season was lost rehabbing an ACL injury suffered in her final high school game. She earned Pac-12 All-Freshman honors in her return season in 2020, ranking third on the team with five goals scored, and in 2022, she led the Bruins' NCAA Championship team in scoring with 11 goals and 30 points. Fontes was the team's leading scorer in 2023 with five goals and 11 points before her injury at Washington on Sept. 28.
WHAT'S COOKING?
Junior midfielder and first-team All-Big Ten honoree Sofia Cook is tied for first on the team in goals scored with four and is third in points with eight. Three of her four goals have been game-winners - in the 43rd minute of a 1-0 win over Santa Clara, in the 28th minute of a 1-0 victory at Indiana, and in the 57th minute of a 2-0 win at Purdue. She ranks eighth in the Big Ten with three game-winning goals and has totaled 12 goals and six assists in her career.
VIVA MEXICO
Three Bruin players - America Frias, Mariangela Medina and Val Vargas - spent the beginning of the season playing for Team Mexico at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, missing a total of nine games. UCLA has gone 10-1-2 since their return on Sept. 19. Frias has started in every game since her return, 13 total, and Vargas has started in 11 games, scoring her first goal of the year, the game-winner against Rutgers in the Big Ten Championship match. Another Mexican Youth National Team player - Bridgette Marin-Valencia - has been with the Bruins all season and is leading the team in goals with four and is second in points with 10.
Mexico advanced to the round of 16 at the World Cup, where they fell in extra time to the United States, 3-2. All three Bruins played in the game. Vargas started and scored a first-half goal. Frias was a second-half sub, and Medina came into the game late in the overtime. Just two minutes after entering the game, Medina was forced into a penalty kick situation and made the save to keep Mexico within one.
WELCOME BACK
UCLA returned seven starters from last season's conference championship team and seven all-conference players in Lilly Reale, Quincy McMahon, Sofia Cook, Ayo Oke, Jayden Perry, Sunshine Fontes and Lexi Wright. Additionally, Val Vargas earned all-freshman honors a year ago.
The Bruins' senior class has been prolific. Reale, McMahon, Perry, Wright and Emma Egizii entered together in 2021 and won a conference title in 2021, a NCAA title in 2022 and another conference title in 2023. The quintet has combined for 10 all-conference honors and have scored 117 points (37 goals and 43 assists) collectively while posting an overall record of 70-8-7. Reale is a two-time All-American and three-time conference Defensive Player of the Year, the Honda Award winner in 2022, and the Most Outstanding Defensive Player at the 2022 College Cup. McMahon was the Most Outstanding Player at the 2024 Big Ten Tournament.
Although not in that senior class, Fontes has also accomplished much in her time at UCLA. After redshirting the 2019 season with a torn ACL, she competed in the 2020 season and helped UCLA win the Pac-12 title, the first of three Fontes was a part of (2020, 2021, 2023). She was the leading scorer for the 2022 NCAA champion Bruins with 11 goals and 30 points and now has 22 career goals, 15 assists and 59 points.
IMPACT TRANSFERS
UCLA welcomed four experienced transfers to the squad in 2024, including a pair of graduate transfers in goalkeeper Ryan Campbell (Stanford) and midfielder Meg Boade (Northwestern) who were named to the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Players to Watch List. Campbell was the Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year and a first-team All-Region selection after recording 11 solo and two combined shutouts in 2023. She also led the conference with a 0.601 goals against average. Boade broke Northwestern's single-season assists record in 2023 with 14 assists and ranked second in the nation in assists per game with a 0.78 average. She is a two-time All-North Region and All-Big Ten honoree. UCLA also brought in a pair of former conference foes in senior midfielder Alice Barbieri (Oregon) and junior forward Lily Boyden (Washington State). Barbieri played in 55 games with 36 starts over her first three seasons and has nine career points. Boyden was a Pac-12 All-Freshman selection in 2022 after playing in 18 of 19 games for the Cougars and totaling two goals and three assists. Boyden did not play in 2023 after suffering an injury in the spring.
All four transfers have seen significant minutes this season. Campbell has recorded a nation-leading 16 shutouts and ranks third with a goals against average of 0.318 while playing every minute of every game. Boade has played in all 22 games with 17 starts, and she scored the game-winning goal against No. 16 BYU, along with assists against UC Riverside and Illinois. Boyden has played in all 22 while starting in eight contests, and scored her first goal of the season in UCLA's Big Ten Tournament championship win. Barbieri has started in nine games and played in 15.
FABULOUS FRESHMEN
The Bruins boast Top Drawer Soccer's No. 2 recruiting class in the nation, led by six rookies ranked in the Top 50 in No. 12 Nicki Fraser, No. 15 Kamryn Winger, No. 19 Bella Winn, No. 39 Avery Robinson, No. 46 Kara Croone and No. 50 Paloma Daubert. Sammy Sanchez is also ranked at No. 64. Also joining the team were freshmen goalkeepers Layla Armas and Mariangela Medina and forward Jordan Geis. Five of the freshmen made their collegiate debuts in the season opener. Fraser, Winn and Geis earned starts, and Daubert and Sanchez logged double-digit minutes off the bench. Robinson made her debut against UC Riverside and recorded one shot and had a near-goal hit the crossbar at Cal Poly. Fraser, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, has started in 18 games to lead the rookies and scored her first collegiate goal in the 1-0 win over Penn State in the Big Ten quarterfinals. Geis, who was named to the Big Ten's All-Freshman team, has played in every game and made 12 starts, ranking fourth on the team in scoring with five points off two goals and one assist. Daubert has played in 20 of the Bruins' 22 games and made 15 starts. Geis's game-winner at Oregon was her first collegiate goal and led her to her first Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week award. Daubert scored the game-winning goal against Minnesota, the first goal of her collegiate career, and she provided the assist on the game-winner in the Big Ten quarterfinals. Croone made her collegiate debut on Oct. 13 at Illinois and has started in each of the last three games. She earned her first collegiate point with an assist on the game-winning goal in the Big Ten championship game.
SISTER ACT
Sophomore forward Sophie Reale made her collegiate debut in the season opener after redshirting the 2023 campaign, playing 36 minutes and recording two shots, including one on goal. The game marked the first time Reale and her older sister Lilly have played together in their collegiate careers and the first time that two Bruin sisters have played in the same game since Anika and Karina Rodriguez played together in 2019. Both Reale sisters, who grew up in Hingham, Mass. and attended Hingham HS, made the starting lineup for the first time in the Cal Poly match, with Lilly scoring the game-winning goal. They were both on the field for Sophie's first collegiate goal in the Big Ten championship match against Rutgers.
ACADEMIC HONORS
For the 13th consecutive year, the UCLA women's soccer team has won a United Soccer Coaches College Team Academic Award, recognizing exemplary performance in the classroom during the 2023-24 academic year. The Bruins posted a team GPA of 3.25, their fifth consecutive year over 3.25. A total of 17 players were named to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll in 2023 a year after posting a record 18 honorees. The Bruins also received UCLA's Most Improved GPA Award for Large Teams for the 2023-24 academic year.
