Nov. 12, 2006
Los Angeles, Calif. - UCLA's Danesha Adams scored a pair of goals, including the eventual game-winner in the 14th minute of the match, as the No. 3 Bruins advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Sunday afternoon at Drake Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif.
The Titans, who became the first Big West Conference school to win NCAA Tournament matches in back-to-back seasons on Friday night, finished their season with a 12-8-2 overall record and a second-straight Big West Tournament championship.
It was the sixth-straight winning season for Fullerton and the third-straight year with 10-or-more victories for the Titans.
UCLA improved to 19-3 overall and advances to face Florida (a 4-3 winner in penalties over Marquette) in a "Sweet 16" match-up next weekend.
Fullerton came out of the gates as the early aggressor, taking three of the first four shots of the match.
However, the Bruins were the first ones to find the back of the net as they scored twice within a span of less than a minute for the early lead.
Freshman Lauren Cheney got things going at the 12:34 mark, chesting down a ball at the top of the box, wheeling around, and unleashing a shot to the lower left corner for the 1-0 lead.
Adams then got into the swing of things 59 seconds later as she took a cross from Christina DiMartino and knocked it home from in close for the 2-0 lead.
The Titans did not hang back, however, as they continued to put as much pressure on the Bruins as they could.
Sophomore Leslie Munoz had a pair of near misses in the 23rd and 33rd minutes on nearly the same shot. Munoz made runs down the left side of the field and aimed to the far post out of the reach of a diving Valerie Henderson, but both balls would just miss the post and go out for a Bruins' goal kick.
Junior Brianna Buffington also had a solid chance in the 29th minute as a throw in by sophomore Jenae Gibbens found Buffington within five yards, but her chip shot just cleared the crossbar to keep the Titans off the board.
UCLA added another goal from Adams in the second minute of play in the second half as DiMartino's cross found Adams in the box, who flicked home a header to the right post for the 3-0 advantage.
Fullerton prevented the shutout in the 76th minute as sophomore Leslie Munoz skidded a low corner kick through traffic to sophomore Casey Schostag, who one-timed a rocket to the right post to make it 3-1.
It was the second goal of the season for Schostag, who scored her first career goal to beat UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals of the Big West Conference Tournament on Nov. 3.
Senior goalkeeper Karen Bardsley made several spectacular saves to keep her side in it, finishing with a career-high 14 stops on the afternoon. The total is the second-best single-match total in the history of the program behind Heidi Clauss' 21 saves at Pepperdine in 1993.
Bardsley finished with 128 saves this season - just one short of matching the single-season school record.