Arizona Soccer has a setback, is swept by USC and UCLA

Arizona Soccer (8-4-1, 1-3-1) travels to Southern California for back-to-back Pac-12 showdowns but come back empty-handed.

It is not easy winning in the Pac-12, as it is arguably one of the toughest for soccer and this weekend the Arizona Soccer team certainly learned that.

Traveling to Southern California to take on No. 2 USC and No. 15 UCLA, we knew this would be a tough series of games coming in.

Arizona Wildcats

Fresh off a solid weekend versus Utah and Colorado, Arizona finally returned to the pitch on Thursday evening at McAlister Field in Los Angeles against No. 2 USC.

From the early parts of the game, this one was competitive, but from about the 12th minute on, the Trojans would come to life and completely take over. USC would dominate much of the possessions in that first half, put up shot after shot against Arizona.

Finally, at the 31st minute, USC would strike first, breaking the scoreless tie on a penalty shot that got right past Lainey Burdett. Despite USC’s best attempts after that, the Wildcats would turn them away, heading into halftime down 1-0.

Hoping to get things back on track in the second half, USC would score early, essentially putting this one away. In the 48th minute, the Trojans would go on the attack, using great passing to set themselves up for the goal to put them up 2-0.

From then on, it was all USC. The Wildcats would fight valiantly to try and come back in this one, but the Trojans were just too strong, sealing the 2-0 victory.

Arizona would get dominated in the stat column, having just five shots with two of them being on goal compared to USC’s 22 shots, with 10 being on goal.

Regardless of the loss, you got to move on and quickly, as. The Wildcats would then travel just down the road to take on No. 15 UCLA.

A bit different than their game against USC, the Wildcats would keep this one competitive, at least through the first half. Arizona would have plenty of chances in the first half but was turned away in each of them.

The Bruins would also have a few attempts but was stopped by Burdett to keep the shutout in the first half intact. Both teams would enter halftime with a 0-0 tie.

Unfortunately, things would become unraveled in the second half. At the 48th minute, the Bruins would finally break the tie, using a few well-placed passes to sneak one past Burdett to make it 1-0.

Arizona would later put a few good attempts together, but UCLA put this thing away for good when they scored again in the 85th minute to make it 2-0, securing the victory. With the loss, the Wildcats now drop to 8-4-1 (1-3-1) on the season.

They will return to action on Saturday when they face a talented Cal team in Tucson, as this will be a great chance for Arizona to get back on track and pick-up their second win in the conference.

At Zona Zealots, we are hopefully Arizona can find their groove again and get back into the win column! Bear Down, Arizona!