On the last road trip of the regular season, the Washington men’s soccer team came up big on Friday afternoon with a 2-0 win over No. 25 San Diego State (6-6-5, 3-3-3), only to suffer a crushing 2-1 defeat at the hands of No. 10 UCLA (10-3-3, 5-1-3) yesterday in Los Angeles.

The Huskies went into the trip knowing they were on the ropes, sitting in fifth place in the Pac-10, fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament. Washington came out blazing on Friday afternoon, scoring just minutes into the game on an unassisted goal by sophomore forward Brent Richards. Richards netted the goal from 15 yards out after stealing a pass deep in Aztec territory, beating one defender, and finally firing a left-footed shot into the right corner of the goal.

“That was just an awesome result,” said head coach Dean Wurzberger. “It was a huge team effort, and I’m really proud of the effort everyone gave.”

Junior midfielder Matt Van Houten added his third goal of the season off of his own rebound in the 87th minute to put the game out of reach with a two-goal lead.

“It was unified and well played,” Wurzberger said. “We were up against it and playing against a good side that was motivated, but Brent [Richards], who hasn’t been scoring much lately, gave us a huge lift with that early goal, and we were able to hang in against a lot of pressure in a tough place to play.”

Washington’s victory was cemented with a career-high 11 saves from senior goalkeeper Rylan Hawkins. The 2-0 result was the sixth shutout of the 2009 campaign for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award finalist.

But the emotional high on Friday night was quickly brought back down to reality on Sunday afternoon as the Huskies suffered a 2-1 defeat to the Bruins, who were coming off a 1-1 tie to Oregon State (8-6-3, 4-4-1) on Friday.

Sophomore defender Jamie Finch scored his first career goal in the fifth minute, only to be equalized in the 21st minute by UCLA senior midfielder Kyle Nakazawa. The game remained tied until UCLA netted another goal in the 82nd minute for the lead.

“It was a tough loss, but we have to take our hats off to UCLA,” Wurzberger said. “Both teams were showing fatigue from Friday’s game, but one thing that never gets tired is the ball, and they passed it around very effectively and made us chase it and made it hard work for us.”

UCLA outshot the Huskies 14-10, including 7-1 in the second half, which has not been a calling card for a Washington team that has outshot its opponents 260-223 this season.

“Late in the second period, it was hard for us to cope with them keeping possession in our defensive half, and they finally worked their way through with a nifty move. You can see why they’re champs,” Wurzberger said. “They’re a tough team and individually talented.”

Washington is still alive in the chase for an NCAA tournament spot with one game remaining at home, on Nov. 14 against Oregon State.

“Coming down here and splitting in Southern California is by no means a sign of failure. It’s only our second conference loss, so we are very dialed in for getting a result against Oregon State,” Wurzberger said. “With a .500 record, we could still be selected for the tournament. We’ll have a great week of practice and make sure we give a great effort against Oregon State and put ourselves in position to get picked.”

Reach reporter Mark Morgan at sports@dailyuw.com.