Brandishing a wide smile and about two dozen foot-long wooden
rods, UCLA women’s soccer coach Jill Ellis arrived at
practice one morning last month determined to deliver a
message.
Gathering her team together, she snapped one stick. Then
another. Finally she challenged every member of the team to break
the whole lot of them at once.
No one could.
“It was a reminder of how fragile we can be as
individuals,” senior midfielder Jill Oakes said. “And
how solid we can be as a team.”
Putting up a united front figures to be crucial for UCLA, a
program that has grown accustomed to battling for the College Cup
every year, but has been hit hard by graduation, injuries and
adversity so far in 2004.
Gone are four seniors who led the team to the NCAA semifinals
last year. Also out of action are a trio of injured Bruins and a
pair of would-be starters, Stephanie Kron and Stacy Lindstrom, who
will redshirt the season to play with the U.S. Under-19 National
team.
That leaves Ellis without six starters from a year ago, and
without five players who she might have pencilled into the UCLA
lineup at the beginning of practice this August.
“It’s a rebuilding year,” Ellis said.
“We have a makeshift team. We know we’re going to take
some lumps, but what I’ve tried to emphasize is that we have
to stick together.”
It hasn’t been easy.
Seniors Kim Devine and Lindsey Greco have had to play out of
position in the midfield and defense respectively for UCLA due to a
lack of depth at both positions. Also, forward Iris Mora, the
Pac-10’s leading scorer a year ago, did not rejoin the team
until its seventh game of the season because she was playing for
the Mexican National Team at the Olympics.
Shuffling all those new faces in and out of the lineup has left
UCLA vulnerable against tough non-conference competition.
Boasting a pre-season No. 3 ranking inflated by the
program’s reputation, the Bruins lost a pair of
non-conference games against ACC powers Virginia and Maryland
earlier this month by a combined 5-2 score. That marked
UCLA’s first two-game losing streak in five years, and also
equaled their loss total from all of last season.
“It was definitely not something we expected, and it was
definitely a wakeup call,” Oakes said.
“We’re so used to winning, that it was a good
reminder things aren’t always going to go our way.”
It was also an early glimpse of the areas UCLA will need to
shore up before conference play begins in October.
The defending Pac-10 champion Bruins have dominated the
possession battle against most of their opponents, but they have
failed to convert on some key scoring chances.
Freshman goalkeeper Valerie Henderson has looked vulnerable at
times, and new midfielders, Caitlin Ursini, Michelle Gleason, and
Devine have struggled to win balls in the air, an area in which the
graduated Whitney Jones excelled at a year ago.
But if fellow Pac-10 powers Washington, Stanford and Arizona
State believe this is the year that they can unseat UCLA, they
shouldn’t neglect the signs that the Bruins may be coming
together at the right time.
Mora is back in the lineup, the young players are growing more
comfortable with their new roles, and Oakes has filled the void
left by All-American Nandi Pryce as the team’s vocal leader.
That translated into a pair of impressive road victories in the
state of Texas against No. 20 SMU and Texas A&M. Mora scored
the Bruins’ lone goal against the Aggies, a second-half tally
that was good enough to earn UCLA the victory.
“I’m proud of where we are,” Ellis said.
“We’ve weathered some adversity. When we show up
focused, we’re very good. When we struggle mentally,
we’re vulnerable.”
As for Ellis’ message to stick together, the Bruins have
taken that to heart. Each player has decorated their own stick, and
brings it to every game.
Some are painted blue and gold. Others are plain. But all of
them are inscribed with the phrase “one team.”
“That’s the motto for our season,” Oakes said.
“We have to forget about all the players who aren’t out
here. As long as we stick together, we’ll be fine.”