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Week X Preview: UWS West

07/12/2018, 3:30pm EDT
By Admin

COL trek to Southern California for a two-match weekend

FRIDAY, JULY 13

Real Salt Lake Women vs. So Cal Crush FC

7:00 PM MDT – RSL Academy (Herriman, UT)

Real Salt Lake Women and So Cal Crush FC will meet for the second time in six days as the sides squared off last Sunday in La Crescenta, with the host Crush picking up a 4-1 decision for their first victory of the season. The match came as the second in two days for Real Salt Lake Women as the night before, they went out to Santa Clarita and defeated the Blue Heat soundly, with University of Utah product Hailey North netting a hat trick to lead her team to a 4-0 victory. If they were able to take both results last week, RSLW could have made a case to finish in third place in the West. But unfortunately, they know that their fourth-placed spot is secured no matter the result. But still, Mark Davis’ team will want to finish off the campaign on a high note and try to finish .500 at home, as they currently are 1-2-1 at the RSL Academy this season.

So Cal Crush FC will be buzzing after their first victory of the season and comes after a lot of close calls in the weeks leading up to the win. Lauren Wade put in a strong performance last week as she scored a pair of goals and assisted on another to lead the attack. They’ve been a tough team to play over the last few weeks, especially in their home matches against Calgary and Santa Clarita as they forced those two teams to dig deep on the road. And now they will look to try and take home the season double against RSLW and hang their hat on a really strong finish to the season.

LA Galaxy OC Women vs. Colorado Pride

7:00 PM PDT – Orange County Great Park (Irvine, CA)

LA Galaxy OC Women had the perfect situation set up last week as they looked to win the West Conference title in their UWS debut season. They came into last week with a five-match winning streak and had CFWFC playing in very hot conditions on their home field. But ultimately, they couldn’t finish off their chances and when you put nearly double-digit shots on target, you have to put a few away if you want to take home points. So, after the 2-0 loss to Calgary which saw their quest for a title end, LAGOC will look to put that match behind them and finish the season positively against Colorado. In their previous meeting back on June 16, Scott Juniper’s team took home a confident 4-0 victory with Jordan Marada scoring a pair of goals and both Angelina Hix and Sherifa Sumaila tallying a goal. So they will be hoping for more of the same in this matchup.

Colorado had a very front-loaded schedule this season as they played their first seven matches between May 18 through June 16. But have only played once since then, which came on June 24, earning a 4-2 victory at So Cal. So after an 18-day layoff, you would figure that AJ Adcock’s team will be well rested and up for the challenge of facing the second and third placed teams in the West this weekend. In that 4-2 victory over So Cal, Taryn LaBree came alive with a hat trick, earning her spot on the Week VII UWS Team of the Week. Adcock will hope that his team can lean on the University of South Dakota striker again this weekend to try and take a result or two and end the season in fifth place.

SUNDAY, JULY 15

Santa Clarita Blue Heat vs. Colorado Pride

6:00 PM PDT – Master’s University (Santa Clarita, CA)

After taking on LAGOC on Friday night, Colorado will head to Santa Clarita to take on the Blue Heat in the final match of the 2018 UWS Regular Season schedule. These two sides played a classic on June 2nd as Santa Clarita used an 86th minute winner from Chloe Castaneda to earn a 3-2 victory, but also saw their goalkeeper Lauren Brzykcy come up with one of the saves of the season in stoppage time as she deftly tipped Aleesa Muir’s long distance effort around the post, preserving the three points for her side.

Santa Clarita will be hoping for some similar magic in this contest as after learning that their quest for three-peating as West Conference Champions ended, they were defeated soundly by Real Salt Lake Women on their home turf. That result also confirmed that they would finish the season in third place and while there will be a lot of thinking about what went wrong this season, Leonardo Neveleff’s team will want to come out with some fire and intensity this weekend to end the campaign strongly.

About United Women's Soccer:

UWS is a national women’s soccer league sanctioned by U.S. Soccer. UWS is a professionally operated league created for teams that meet high minimum standards. The season runs from May until the end of July, culminating in a National Championship match. The UWS player pool is comprised of college players, aspiring & former professionals and international stars. You can follow UWS on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Media can contact the UWS Communications office by e-mail at UWSPress@gmail.com. You can visit the league’s official website at UWSSoccer.com. Interested team applicants can contact League Commissioner Joe Ferrara, Jr. by e-mail at Joe@UWSSoccer.com.

Tag(s): News |   West  Real Salt Lake  Santa Clarita Blue Heat  So Cal Crush  Colorado Pride  LA Galaxy