Asian American head coach Margueritte Aozasa will lead the UCLA women’s soccer team into the NCAA College Cup championship game tonight.
The UCLA Bruins will face the University of North Carolina Tarheels tonight at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. The game will air on ESPNU and ESPN+ at 6 p.m. ET.
Aozasa was hired as the UCLA women’s head soccer coach in December 2021 and is the sixth women’s soccer head coach in program history, according to the UCLA website.
The Bruins coach played college soccer at Santa Clara University, where U.S. soccer legend Brandi Chastain played. Before she began coaching at UCLA she spent seven years as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer team at Stanford University. During her time at Stanford, the team won two NCAA championships and five PAC-12 titles.
Aozasa is one of just five Asian American women currently serving as head coach for an NCAA women’s soccer team. She hopes her presence encourages AAPI players to pursue college soccer.
“If see you see it, you can be it,” she said in an interview with Soccer American. “I want to represent who I am, nobly and honorably. I want (AAPI) players to feel welcome, so they can go on to become coaches. That’s true with any minority. It’s especially important in a place with such a diverse population as L.A.”
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
We are supported through donations and such charitable organizations as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This holiday season, double your impact by making a tax-deductible donation to Asian American Media Inc and AsAmNews. Less than $4,000 remains in matching grant funds. Donate today to double your impact and bring us closer to our goal of $38,000 by year-end.
Please also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X.
