UCLA men’s soccer will begin its 2025 season on Thursday, August 21, with an away match against UC Irvine at Anteater Stadium. The Bruins hold a strong historical advantage in the series, leading 19-3-1, and last defeated UC Irvine 4-0 in their previous meeting during the 2023 season.
Reflecting on the previous year, UCLA finished with a record of 7-6-6 overall and 3-4-3 in conference play during its first season as part of the Big Ten Conference. The team reached the NCAA Tournament for a fourth consecutive year. Notably, Nicholas Cavallo was selected by New York City FC in the third round of the MLS SuperDraft, marking four straight years that a Bruin has either been drafted or signed to Major League Soccer.
A highlight from last season was a comeback win over then No. 2 Ohio State on October 11. Edrey Caceres and Artem Vovk scored as UCLA overturned an early deficit to secure Ohio State’s only regular-season loss. Senior midfielder Andre Ochoa earned second team All-North region honors at season’s end, while Ochoa, Cavallo, and Allan Legaspi received Big Ten recognition.
UCLA faced one of the toughest schedules nationally in 2024, playing ten ranked opponents and recording a 4-2-4 record against them.
The Bruins have historically performed well in season openers, posting a cumulative record of 43-9-6 in games where results are available. Under head coach Ryan Jorden—now entering his seventh year—the team is 5-1-0 in openers since he took charge.
Three Bruins—Drew Brown, Tamir Ratoviz, and Sergi Solans Ormo—were named to the Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch list. Brown joins UCLA after three seasons at Wisconsin where he made significant contributions defensively. Ratoviz enters his second year after leading all freshmen on the team in points last season with two goals and five assists. Solans Ormo transferred from Oregon State following an impressive campaign that included being named WCC Offensive Player of the Year and earning third-team All-America honors; he was also drafted by Real Salt Lake.
In preseason polling by Big Ten coaches, UCLA was predicted to finish fourth behind Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio State.
Sophomore forward Sergi Solans Ormo was ranked No.13 among TopDrawerSoccer’s top-100 players nationally and placed on their Best XI Preseason second team.
This fall brings significant roster changes for UCLA as they welcome eighteen newcomers—a group ranked No.1 nationally by TopDrawerSoccer—including eleven freshmen and seven transfers from various collegiate programs and academies across North America and Europe.
The roster features international diversity with student-athletes from Denmark (Philip Naef, Oliver Roche), Spain (Ander Marticorena, Sergi Solans Ormo), Canada (Ryan Tiltack), Cyprus (Konstantinos Georgallides), Ghana (Francis Bonsu), and Ukraine (Artem Vovk).
UCLA enters its second year competing in the Big Ten Conference this fall; their first conference match will be September 12 at home against Northwestern.
For media coverage this season, six matches will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network—including home games against Wisconsin and Maryland—and five additional matches will stream on B1G+, including UCLA’s home opener versus California on August 24.
The coaching staff added Sergi Nus as an assistant coach earlier this year. Nus previously served three seasons at Oregon State where he helped guide teams to three NCAA Tournaments including a College Cup appearance in 2023; several players under his tenure were selected for MLS or earned All-America honors.
Academically, UCLA recently received a United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award for maintaining a collective GPA of 3.36 during the past academic year—the eighth consecutive time under Coach Jorden that they have achieved this distinction.
At the professional level heading into this season there were nine former Bruins active within Major League Soccer: Frankie Amaya (on loan at LAFC), Ryan Hollingshead (LAFC), Reggie Cannon (Colorado Rapids), Nicholas Cavallo (New York City FC), Earl Edwards Jr. (San Jose Earthquakes), Milan Iloski (Philadelphia Union after starting with San Diego FC), Tucker Lepley (LA Galaxy/MLS Cup winner), Tommy Silva (Real Salt Lake) and Jackson Yueill (New England Revolution).
Fans can follow updates about UCLA men’s soccer through @UCLAMSoccer on Instagram and Twitter; according to recent data they rank second nationally among men’s soccer programs for Instagram followers.
