Mew's Views: Wrapping Up Pac-12

Senior midfielder Sam Mewis is back for season two of Mew's Views. Mewis helped lead UCLA to its first-ever NCAA Championship in 2013 and is back for her senior season with the added arsenal of experience playing with the full U.S. Women's National Team under her belt. Mewis, a three-time all-conference player and a 2013 NSCAA Scholar All-West Region selection, has scored 88 points on 29 goals and 30 assists in her UCLA career.

After two travel weekends in a row, it’s nice to finally be back in LA for a few weeks. We took on Washington State last Friday in a tough match that we were able to win, 1-0. We then trekked from Pullman back to Seattle in our Halloween costumes. Luckily, team photographer/filmographer Luke Grigg joined us to document all the festivities and fun.

With the majority of our traveling over, we relaxed a bit on Saturday. Many of the girls studied for midterms, while some of us explored Seattle. Katelyn Rowland and I were a little bit too excited about visiting Pike Place and the original Starbucks. I also got to spend some time with my dad, who was able to finagle a business trip to Seattle last weekend so that he could see our games. We had an awesome dinner out on Saturday night as a team. We also welcomed back Rosie White from her trip with New Zealand Football in Papua New Guinea.

Sunday’s game was rainy and chilly, but we overcame the conditions and were able to beat University of Washington 6-0. Gabrielle Matulich scored her first collegiate goal in the second half, and Katelyn Rowland recorded another shutout. With one more shutout, Katelyn will movie into a tie for the most career shutouts in NCAA history. This kind of accomplishment is extremely impressive and is one of the reasons why this team is so special.

Our win against UW guaranteed us at least a shared Pac-12 title for this season and the automatic Pac-12 bid for NCAA tournament. With a win on Friday, we could win the Pac-12 outright and head into NCAA tournament undefeated. We are focusing on our performance against USC in the big rivalry game this Friday. USC is always a tough opponent, and playing in the Coliseum is bound to add some hype to the game.

If you can’t make it out to USC, catch our last regular season game on the Pac-12 Network this Friday at 7:30 pm! Go Bruins!

Sam Mewis