The No. 3 UCLA women’s soccer team’s quest for an
NCAA championship begins tonight at Drake Stadium when they take on
Loyola Marymount.
UCLA (16-3, 8-1 Pac-10) has never lost to LMU, beating them all
seven times they have played, including a 3-2 come-from-behind
victory earlier this year. The Bruins, as one might expect, refuse
to look past the Lions (10-6-3, 3-3-1 WCC).
“We have to come focused and ready to play; once you have
beaten a team during the season, you have to get mentally prepared
to beat them again,” UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said.
“That’s going to be our main focus this weekend,
we’re just going to focus on the first game. Loyola Marymount
gave us a difficult game earlier this year. The emphasis is on us
trying to play well.”
Though the Bruins finished second to top-ranked Stanford in the
regular Pac-10 season, they drew a No. 7 seed in the 64-team field.
For a team that finished third in two major national polls and
finished the season with a seven game winning streak, a No.7 seed
was a bit surprising.
“It was kind of shocking that we got a number seven
seed,” senior Tracey Winzen said. “I’m not
disappointed because I think it will be a tough bracket, but I
think it will be awesome to prove that we could go through that
hard bracket and get to the Final Four.”
All that talk is fine, and could make for something quite
rewarding, but the pavement is poor on the Bruins’ road to
the Final Four. Looming as a possible pothole is a quarterfinal
matchup against North Carolina. The No. 2 Tar Heels have won 16
NCAA titles in the last 21 years. Their most recent title came in
2000, when they defeated the Bruins, 2-1, in the NCAA Finals.
“Our strategy right now is to play one game at a time.
Obviously we’re aware that we could potentially meet UNC in
the quarterfinals and if that comes, then we’ll accept that
challenge, but we won’t get there if we don’t beat LMU
Friday,” freshman midfielder Jill Oakes said.
Should the Bruins defeat the Lions, they will then face the
winner of the USC-University of San Diego match.
A tough bracket, the pressure of a single elimination
tournament, and even a possible second round matchup with a
cross-town rival, has Ellis believing that the best is yet to come
from her young team.
“In a sense I feel like this team responds better to the
big games. The better the competition we play, the more pressure,
the better we play,” Ellis said. “So I think they
understand what’s at stake. We obviously looked down the line
at our bracket, but our goal is to get past the first two
rounds.”