The UCLA men’s soccer team is set to face No. 18 Kentucky on Monday, September 1, in Lexington, Kentucky. This marks the first meeting between the two programs.
UCLA comes into the match with a record of 0-2-1. The Bruins recently drew 1-1 against Cal State Fullerton at Wallis Annenberg Stadium. In that game, Cal State Fullerton scored first before Oliver Roche equalized for UCLA in the 67th minute, marking his first goal as a Bruin after transferring from Virginia Tech.
Reflecting on last season, UCLA finished sixth in its inaugural year in the Big Ten Conference and reached the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year. The Bruins posted an overall record of 7-6-6 and went 3-4-3 in conference play. Nicholas Cavallo was selected in the third round of the MLS SuperDraft by New York City FC, continuing a four-year streak of Bruins either being drafted or signing homegrown contracts with MLS clubs.
A highlight from last season included a comeback win over then-No. 2 Ohio State, where Edrey Caceres and Artem Vovk scored to secure a 2-1 victory—Ohio State’s only regular-season loss. Senior midfielder Andre Ochoa earned second team All-North region honors, while Ochoa, Cavallo, and Allan Legaspi were named to Big Ten teams.
UCLA faced one of the most challenging schedules nationally last year, playing ten ranked opponents and achieving a record of 4-2-4 in those matches.
The start of this season has seen significant roster changes with eleven newcomers making their collegiate or UCLA debuts across two matches. Among them are Francis Bonsu, Ian Charles, Kian Concepcion, Ander Marticorena (collegiate debuts), and Drew Brown, Oliver Roche, Sean Sent, Sergi Solans Ormo (UCLA debuts). Dylan Cantafio, Zach Mastrodimos, and Ryan Tiltack also made their collegiate debuts against California.
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 was part of a defense that recorded seven shutouts in 2023. Ratoviz contributed nine points as a freshman last season at UCLA—the most among freshmen on the roster—and tallied five assists. Solans Ormo arrives from Oregon State after leading his former team with fourteen goals and earning third-team All-America honors; he was also drafted by Real Salt Lake in the first round of this year’s MLS SuperDraft.
In preseason polling by Big Ten coaches, UCLA was picked to finish fourth behind Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio State.
Sergi Solans Ormo is also ranked thirteenth on Top Drawer Soccer’s national top-100 players list and was named to their Best XI Preseason second team.
Head coach Ryan Jorden welcomed eighteen newcomers for this season—eleven freshmen and seven transfers—giving UCLA what TopDrawerSoccer ranks as the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class.
This year’s squad features international diversity with eight players who were born or have lived abroad—including representatives from Denmark (Philip Naef and Oliver Roche), Spain (Ander Marticorena and Sergi Solans Ormo), Canada (Ryan Tiltack), Cyprus (Konstantinos Georgallides), Ghana (Francis Bonsu), and Ukraine (Artem Vovk).
The program will honor its 1985 NCAA National Championship team during halftime on Sunday night. That squad captured UCLA’s first men’s soccer title under coach Sigi Schmidt after defeating American University in an eight-overtime final—the longest championship match in NCAA history.
Entering its second season as part of the Big Ten Conference https://bigten.org/sports/msoc , UCLA holds winning records against five current conference members. The Bruins’ first league match will be at home against Northwestern on September 12.
Six games will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network https://btn.com/ , including home fixtures versus Wisconsin (September 19) and Maryland (October 3). Additional away games at Indiana, Ohio State https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-soccer/ , Michigan https://mgoblue.com/sports/mens-soccer , and Michigan State https://msuspartans.com/sports/mens-soccer will also air on BTN. Five more matches will stream via B1G+ ($).
Assistant coach Sergi Nus joined UCLA’s staff in February following three seasons at Oregon State where he helped guide OSU to three NCAA Tournaments—including a College Cup appearance—and coached multiple MLS SuperDraft picks such as Enzo Newman (11th overall pick), Sergi Solans Ormo (30th overall pick), and Armau Farnos.
Before this campaign began, United Soccer Coaches awarded UCLA its eighth consecutive Team Academic Award after posting a collective GPA of 3.36 for the previous academic year—a streak achieved under head coach Ryan Jorden since his arrival seven years ago https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/awards/college-awards/ .
At the start of this season nine former Bruins were active within Major League Soccer: Frankie Amaya (on loan from Toluca to LAFC alongside Ryan Hollingshead), Reggie Cannon (Colorado Rapids), Nicholas Cavallo (New York City FC), Earl Edwards Jr. (San Jose Earthquakes), Milan Iloski (Philadelphia Union via San Diego FC), Tucker Lepley (LA Galaxy; won MLS Cup in 2024), Tommy Silva (Real Salt Lake), Jackson Yueill (New England Revolution).
Fans can follow updates about UCLA men’s soccer through @UCLAMSoccer on Instagram or Twitter/X; according to recent data they rank second nationally among men’s college soccer programs for Instagram followers.
