Twenty minutes after the final seconds had ticked away of the
UCLA-Penn State NCAA quarterfinal, a frustrated Nittany Lion player
kicked a water bottle into the empty Bruin net.
The bottle was the only object to get past UCLA’s
women’s soccer’s defense so far this postseason.
For the fourth consecutive tournament match, the Bruins posted a
shutout, suffocating the Nittany Lions with a stifling and swarming
defense predicated on physical play and defending the passing
lanes.
While UCLA’s high-powered offense was on full display
Friday night, the Bruins’ defensive unit was once again the
team’s backbone, not allowing Penn State to muster any
serious scoring chances until the second half, when the outcome of
the game was largely in hand.
Anchored by National Player of the Year candidate Nandi Pryce,
UCLA’s defense has finally found its niche, and has come a
long way from its early season struggles.
“Offense wins games, but defense wins
championships,” Pryce said. “We’re really playing
well right now.”
The defensive unit has come a long way from the beginning of the
season, when breakdowns led to scoring opportunities and goals.
“It’s a lot less pointing fingers and a lot more
taking responsibility,” Pryce said. “That helps the
defensive unit when you take responsibility for what you can give
to everybody else.”
Coming into the match-up with Penn State, many questioned how
the Bruin defense would match up with the three-headed scoring
machine of Heidi Drummond, Tiffany Weimer and Joanna Lohman, who
combined to tally 55 goals this season for the Nittany Lions.
The answer was easy. Don’t let them touch the ball.
Like they did against Kansas in their previous game, the Bruin
midfielders and defenders dominated the 50-50 balls, winning an
astounding 70 percent of such opportunities in the first half.
“If you’re winning that kind of a percentage, then
you’re dominating, because they’re not really
connecting passes,” coach Jill Ellis said.
“That’s one of our goals as a midfield, to win 75
percent of the 50-50 balls,” said senior midfielder Whitney
Jones, whose early goal in the 16th minute proved to be the
game-winner. “We just had so much adrenaline today that we
were all over the place.”
Because of their success with winning the 50-50 balls and
crowding the opponent’s passing lanes, UCLA dominated
possession and momentum throughout the entire game, never affording
Penn State even a glimmer of hope.
And during the rare occasion when a Nittany Lion corralled the
ball, a blue jersey was never more than a few feet away.
“It’s like we’re a string, we’re a
connected unit,” senior defender Kathryn Lee said. “The
opposition has nowhere to go.”
San Diego, Pepperdine, Kansas, and now Penn State, will
certainly testify to that.