W-League Feature
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
TAMPA, Fla. – UCLA claimed its first NCAA Division I Women’s Championship with a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory against Florida State on Sunday afternoon.
With the victory, three of its key players earned their second championship of the year.
Abby Dahlkemper, Sarah Killion and Caprice Dydasco played every minute for the Bruins, and in the process added to the W-League champions medals they earned this summer with the Pali Blues. A fourth Blues player, junior midfielder Sam Mewis, also played a key role, and was delighted to help bring the program its first championship, and the 110th overall in school history.
“Women’s soccer at UCLA has never won a national championship, so we felt like we weren’t really a part of [it],” Mewis said of the Bruins’ championship history. “UCLA leads the country in most national championships and we wanted to contribute to that. After baseball won 109 in the spring, it was so cool to witness that and see how awesome it was for them – we know a lot of them – and we wanted to become a part of it and contribute to UCLA and this was our way of doing it. It’s unreal we won our 110th one. We’re so happy.”
Sophomore forward Kodi Lavrusky scored the decisive goal in the 97th minute, making an excellent run to latch onto Megan Oyster’s through ball before clipping her finish past Florida State and former Colorado Rush goalkeeper Kelsey Wys.
Another member of Pali’s 2013 squad, Rose White, had lifted the Bruins into the final on Friday night as she scored the decisive goal in a penalty shootout against No. 1-seed Virginia. After the game had ended in a 1-1 draw, Pali’s Makenzy Doniak having scored for the Cavaliers, Mewis and Killion both converted from the spot for the Bruins as they moved into the final.
Then, thanks to Lavrusky’s finish, UCLA Coach Amanda Cromwell got to finish her first season in charge of the Bruins with a championship. After an arduous run that saw her side defeat the top-seeded Cavaliers, but also former champions North Carolina and Stanford, Cromwell was proud of her side’s achievement.
“I mean this has to be, if you look at who we had to go through to get to this point to win a national championship,” Cromwell said. “The two past national champions and the overall number one seed in Virginia and a very good Florida State team, the ACC Tournament Champion. If you look through the history books and look at the RPI of the teams we had to play, even San Diego State and Kentucky. Those are very good teams that gave us some issues.
“If you look back, it may be one of the best runs ever. It really might be. This team is phenomenal. The amount of talent we have and what we brought forth throughout that run: the mentality and the resolve. I think the toughness of those games brought us to this point, and I knew these girls were destined to win it.”
For Florida State, the wait for the first women’s soccer championship is delayed another year. The Seminoles, who got a pair of goals from Pali’s Jamia Fields to defeat Virginia Tech 3-2 in the semifinals, were full of praise for Wys and Pali’s Kassy Kallman, who showed great leadership throughout their senior seasons.
“We came into the season with a lot of uncertainty, but a couple of things that we knew for sure: Kassey Kallman and Kelsey Wys were two seasoned veterans,” Seminoles coach Mark Krikorian said. “They are outstanding leaders and great players and they were going to have to put this team on their back at times. I think we’re sitting here today and playing for a national championship, mostly because of their efforts.”
For the Bruins, and in particular Killion, Dydasco and MAC Hermann Semifinalist Dahlkemper, the final game of the season could not have been any sweeter.
“We knew [the Seminoles] were a team that always fights and scraps, and they’ve scored so many goals after the 80th minute, that was in my mind as they had a couple long throw-ins there,” Cromwell said. “This girl next to me [Katelyn Rowland] came out and snagged a few. These guys [Mewis and the back line] were winning head balls and second balls. It was a grind-it-out game. It really was. Kodi [Lavrusky’s] goal in overtime was phenomenal. The timing of the run and the ball, and the first-time finish. I couldn’t be happier.”