No. 18 UCLA will play two key matches this week, starting with a road game against Portland on Thursday, Sept. 4 at Merlo Field and followed by a home contest versus No. 1 Stanford on Sunday, Sept. 7 at Wallis Annenberg Stadium in Los Angeles.
Thursday’s match against Portland will be broadcast on ESPN+ and features commentary from Chris Clayton and Angela Harrison. Sunday’s game with Stanford will air on Big Ten Plus, with Nick Koop and Sophie Wimmer providing coverage. Live statistics for both games are available online.
Portland enters the match following a scoreless draw against No. 4 USC and a home win over Long Beach State. Goalkeeper Sophia Hills has registered two shutouts this season and maintains a goals against average of 0.50. Violet Rademacher and Aliyah Dockter lead the Pilots in scoring with one goal each. Michelle French, an Olympic medalist who previously served as an assistant coach at UCLA in 2002, is in her eighth season leading Portland.
UCLA leads its all-time series with Portland 8-1, including five consecutive wins. The last meeting between the teams was in the NCAA quarterfinals in 2009 when UCLA advanced to the College Cup after a 2-1 victory.
Stanford arrives as the top-ranked team for the second week running and faces No. 6 USC before visiting UCLA on Sunday. The Cardinal have averaged five goals per game this season while allowing only two total goals through five matches for a goals against average of 0.40, recording three shutouts along the way. Jasmine Aikey leads Stanford with five goals; she shares the team points lead with Allie Montoya at eleven points each.
The rivalry between Stanford and UCLA stands at 19-13-3 in favor of Stanford all time. Their most recent encounter at UCLA ended in a 1-1 tie in 2023; Stanford’s last win was in 2022, while UCLA won their previous matchup in Los Angeles in 2021.
The connection between coaching staffs is notable: “UCLA’s Margueritte Aozasa was an assistant coach at Stanford from 2015-21 under Paul Ratcliffe,” according to program materials. “They teamed up to lead Stanford to NCAA Championships in 2017 and 2019 before Aozasa joined the Bruins as head coach in 2022 and led UCLA to a NCAA Championship in her first year.” Paul Ratcliffe also played for UCLA’s men’s soccer championship team in 1990.
Historically, UCLA is now ranked No.18 by United Soccer Coaches after moving up from No.23, while they also climbed four spots to No.8 according to Top Drawer Soccer rankings this week.
In their last outing, new players contributed heavily during UCLA’s victory over Long Beach State: “Bruin newcomers accounted for both goals and all three assists,” said program officials, highlighting freshman Payten Cooper’s goal and assist performance alongside contributions from Oruha Hayashi, Leena Powell, Grace Shank, Daphne Nakfoor, and Mariangela Medina.
Freshman forward Payten Cooper was named Big Ten Women’s Soccer Freshman of the Week following her efforts against Long Beach State: “Cooper had two shots on goal and played in a season-best 45 minutes,” officials noted.
Defensively this season, UCLA has held opponents to just ten shots on goal across four games while freshman goalkeeper Daphne Nakfoor has allowed only two goals so far.
Eight Bruins made their debuts during the season opener; several freshmen earned starting roles or significant playing time early on.
Three players—Emma Egizii, Jennie Immethun, Lexi Wright—were named to the Big Ten Players to Watch List after recovering from injuries that sidelined them last year or transferring into the program (Immethun from TCU).
Lexi Wright received additional recognition as part of the inaugural Allstate NACDA Good Works Team for her community service work supporting children with cancer through various organizations: “Wright supports children with cancer through Zoe’s Goal-Scoring Against Childhood Cancer… She also volunteers with Football For Her.”
Transfer students Immethun (defender) and Hayashi (forward) have already impacted their new squad significantly; Immethun earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors after helping secure a shutout win earlier this year.
This year’s recruiting class features several U.S Youth National Team members such as Sofia Atehortua, Meila Brewer (recently called up again for international duty), Cassidy Doogan, Daphne Nakfoor, Leena Powell, Grace Shank—as well as Egyptian youth national player Laila Edris—with most freshmen seeing early action during exhibition or regular-season games.
