[Hieronymus]

1699733803[/url]']

1699680234[/url]']
wow. UCLA beat them at Irvine 4-0 earlier this season. (we beat them 2-1 at Irvine).

I attended that Stanford Stanford/UC Irvine game. Irvine actually got off to an early lead and we had a hard time breaking through. I watched the game with a parent of one of the Stanford players and we shared a lot of stressful moments together. Ultimately, it was two frosh (Shae Harvey and Joelle Jung) that bailed us out with a couple of impressive goals.  So I was shocked with UCLA's 4-0 win because Irvine looked very tough against us. I was glad they weren't on our side of the bracket.

This was a much bigger upset than UCI's prior two.  UCLA was a 2 seed two tournaments ago and USC was a 4 seed last year. Further, UCLA had returned most of its top players from its national champion team, brought in U23 International Ayo Uke as a transfer, and had the #1 recruiting class in the nation.  

But none of that mattered. Irvine is very well coached and, like Santa Clara, seems to always figure things out come tournament time. (2 years ago UCLA had beaten UCI 3-1 in the regular season before losing to them 0-1 at NCAAs. Last season USC beat UCI 3-2 in the regular season before losing to them 0-2 at NCAAs. UCI made it to the 3rd round, farther than any Pac 12 team besides UCLA.)

Tough loss for UCLA. Good news is I don’t care about PAC pride. But no guarantees in college soccer. It’s certainly not Football or Volleyball where the best team always wins. 

Now I really like our odds but see previous -  no guarantees.

On a side note, I see one of my gross over seeds - Xavier - is already toast. I expect Nebraska to come through the other side.

[Hieronymus]

1699733803[/url]']

1699680234[/url]']
wow. UCLA beat them at Irvine 4-0 earlier this season. (we beat them 2-1 at Irvine).

I attended that Stanford Stanford/UC Irvine game. Irvine actually got off to an early lead and we had a hard time breaking through. I watched the game with a parent of one of the Stanford players and we shared a lot of stressful moments together. Ultimately, it was two frosh (Shae Harvey and Joelle Jung) that bailed us out with a couple of impressive goals.  So I was shocked with UCLA's 4-0 win because Irvine looked very tough against us. I was glad they weren't on our side of the bracket.

This was a much bigger upset than UCI's prior two.  UCLA was a 2 seed two tournaments ago and USC was a 4 seed last year. Further, UCLA had returned most of its top players from its national champion team, brought in U23 International Ayo Uke as a transfer, and had the #1 recruiting class in the nation.  

But none of that mattered. Irvine is very well coached and, like Santa Clara, seems to always figure things out come tournament time. (2 years ago UCLA had beaten UCI 3-1 in the regular season before losing to them 0-1 at NCAAs. Last season USC beat UCI 3-2 in the regular season before losing to them 0-2 at NCAAs. UCI made it to the 3rd round, farther than any Pac 12 team besides UCLA.)

Tough loss for UCLA. Good news is I don’t care about PAC pride. But no guarantees in college soccer. It’s certainly not Football or Volleyball where the best team always wins. 

Now I really like our odds but see previous -  no guarantees.

On a side note, I see one of my gross over seeds - Xavier - is already toast. I expect Nebraska to come through the other side.