The questions have been answered.
Resoundingly.
After a tumultuous week in which no less than six key
contributors sustained injuries, the No. 3 UCLA women’s
soccer team cast aside all of the distractions and put together its
best weekend of the season. The host Bruins routed Arizona State,
4-1, Friday night before shutting out Arizona, 4-0, Sunday
afternoon.
“Going into these games, everyone felt that this was our
upswing,” Nandi Pryce said. The senior defender then glanced
up at the scoreboard.
“Eight goals in two games ““ we like that.”
With the pair of victories, UCLA all but wraps up the Pac-10
Championship. Weekend losses by contenders USC and Stanford leave
the Bruins (11-1-3, 5-0-1 Pac-10) with at least a two-game lead on
every conference foe with just two weeks remaining in the regular
season.
“We’re in a good spot, but I wouldn’t say we
have it wrapped up yet,” freshman goalkeeper Arianna
Criscione said. “It would have to be the end of the season to
say that.”
After scoring one goal in 200 minutes last weekend in the Bay
Area, the Bruins’ offense broke out of its slump against the
Arizona schools.
Part of that offensive explosion can be attributed to a new-look
for the lineup that gave the squad more firepower up top. UCLA
started freshman Bristyn Davis and sophomore Iris Mora were at
forward as usual, but a pair of attack-oriented players ““
senior Sarah-Gayle Swanson and junior Lindsay Greco ““ were
inserted in the midfield, giving the team a more potent
formation.
The Bruin quartet created scoring chances throughout both
weekend matches, combining for five goals and five assists.
“I really like the personnel we had out there,” UCLA
coach Jill Ellis said. “Sarah-Gayle and Lindsay are both
usually forwards so they have that scorer’s mentality. They
both did a fantastic job.”
Swanson, in particular, proved to be the decisive factor in
Friday’s victory over the Sun Devils (8-4-3, 2-2-1). The
senior assisted on goals by Iris Mora and Whitney Jones before
capping the Bruins’ scoring with a point-blank goal in the
86th minute.
The victory was not as easy, however, as the score would make it
seem.
Arizona State missed a pair of wide-open net opportunities,
including one that would have tied the match 2-2, midway through
the second half.
“No question those goals would have made a big
difference,” Ellis said. “We caught a few lucky breaks,
but overall I think we deserved to win.”
No one can dispute that the Bruins deserved to win two days
later against Arizona (5-8-2, 1-3-1).
UCLA completely dominated a Wildcat squad that had recorded a
1-0 victory over USC and a 1-1 tie with Arizona State in its
previous two matches.
Mora, Jones, Davis and forward Kim Devine each tallied goals for
the Bruins who improve to 5-0-1 at home this year.
Although defender Mary Castelanelli missed both games with a
back injury and midfielder Stacy Lindstrom played sparingly due to
an ankle injury, UCLA proved that it is among the nation’s
best.
“You hope the players respond to adversity, and
they’ve done that,” Ellis said. “(The Arizona
State game) was the best we’ve played this year. It was the
perfect time for it to happen.”