Men’s soccer advances to College Cup with historic win over UCLA

Maybe they are a team of destiny. Or perhaps head coach Ken Lolla has mastered some zen magic. But it seems the University of Louisville men’s soccer team cannot lose.

After beating the University of California, Los Angeles 5-4 in a game that was slippery, snowy and cold the team heads to Santa Barbara, Calif. for the College Cup – the Final Four of college soccer.

“A lot of the visualization we do, we see our destiny,” said Lolla. “We prepare ourselves for that. Then, when we have opportunities to make that happen, we are prepared for it.”

Already the winningest and most successful team in school history, the Cardinals (19-0-3) head to the College Cup with momentum and confidence, and the No. 1 seed. They will face fourth-seeded University of North Carolina on Friday, Dec. 10. The University of Michigan and Akron University make up the other teams in the Final Four.

“I told the guys, ‘What excites me the most about going to the Final Four is the opportunity to live up to our potential,'” said Lolla. “Playing against these great teams reveals our greatness, and we can show what we can do.”

In games against the College of Charleston, Ohio State University and UCLA, the Cards outscored their opponents 10-6. They will head to the Final Four as the only unbeaten team. This is the furthest any U of L soccer team has advanced in the NCAA tournament. Before this year, U of L had only won one NCAA tournament game in program history.

Beating UCLA came with no ease, as few of the team’s games have. Down 2-0 and then 3-1 in the first half, the Cards came back to tie the game at 3-3, and then go-ahead 4-3 early in the second half. After UCLA’s Victor Chavez tied the game at 4-4 within the last 10 minutes of regulation, the Cards had to come back again. But freshman forward Aaron Horton took the ball past at least four Bruin defenders to score the game-winning goal in the 89th minute.

“The coaches told me before I went into the game, ‘You’re going to get a chance,'” said Horton. “That was definitely the best goal I’ve scored in my life. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

After the win, Cardinal fans came crashing onto the field to celebrate with the team, jumping up and down on the pitch until long after time ended. Despite an announcement encouraging fans to stay off the field, many bolted on, surrounding and high-fiving players.

“I did not expect the crowd to come on the field like that,” said junior defender Austin Berry. “I turned around to celebrate with Andre [Boudreaux] and all of a sudden I’m celebrating with 1,000 strangers. It was great.”

The win moved U of L’s unbeaten streak to 22 games, the most ever by a Big East team. Lolla said this team has been prepared to come back all year – even when they haven’t necessarily had to.

“This team has showed tremendous character,” said Lolla. “We have shown it all year long. We’re playing the way we can, with a lot of confidence and toughness. It’s a team of character. It’s who we are.”

A wild game battling the snow, against a tough UCLA team, was a fitting chapter in the tale of the team’s College Cup run. Even in the snow and cold – temperatures dipped as low as 24 degrees – 5,427 fans showed up to watch the Cards play.

“We had to be mentally strong, with the cold and snow,” said redshirt senior midfielder Charlie Campbell, who scored his sixth goal of the season against UCLA, while wearing shorts and short sleeves in the freezing weather. “But we had a big lift. We never doubted ourselves.”

In comparison, the other three quarterfinal matches drew far fewer fans. The attendance at the University of Maryland’s match with Michigan drew 3,536. Akron’s win over the University of California brought 3,442 to Akron’s Lee R. Jackson field. At Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels had only 1,763 fans watch their win over Southern Methodist University. Lolla has said all postseason that the crowds have given U of L a will to win.

“I have been seeing these fans carry teams at this university to victory,” said Lolla. “And once again our fans willed us on to victory. There are very few things in life more positive than when you can get a push from someone else. And we’re very grateful for the support we’ve had.”

The team will host a sendoff party from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday, Dec. 7, before the team heads to Santa Barbara. Outside of basketball and the spirit teams, no other U of L team has won an NCAA national championship in school history.