One victory away from seizing control of the conference race,
the UCLA women’s soccer team once again could not
deliver.
The ninth-ranked Bruins, who entered Sunday afternoon’s
game with Arizona alone in first place, saw their Pac-10 title
hopes melt away in a 1-0 loss to the host Wildcats.
With just one weekend remaining in the conference season, UCLA
(12-6, 5-3 Pac-10) now sits in fourth place in the standings.
Unless first-place Arizona (14-4, 5-2), Arizona State and Stanford
all lose a game next weekend, the defending-champion Bruins have no
shot of earning even a share of the Pac-10 title.
Sunday’s match-up with Arizona is not the first time UCLA
has failed to capitalize on an opportunity to establish itself as
the conference’s premier team. Last month the Bruins dropped
two winnable games against Washington State and California, putting
themselves in a must-win situation this past weekend against the
Arizona schools.
After UCLA kicked off its trip to the desert on the right foot
Friday night with a 1-0 victory over Arizona State, the weekend
quickly unraveled. Arizona outplayed the Bruins from the outset
Sunday, generating a flurry of early scoring chances before finally
finding the back of the net in the 41st minute of play.
Wildcat midfielder Althea Jones dribbled the ball through the
UCLA defense and pushed a shot past goalkeeper Valerie Henderson to
register the game’s lone goal. The Bruins managed five
second-half shots, but could not best freshman goalkeeper McCall
Smith, who posted her ninth shutout of the season.
“We’ve shown that we are a tough team
defensively,” Arizona coach Dan Tobias said in a statement.
“When we are organized, we are tough to deal with. I think we
created good chances off of the defense and their keeper had to
come up with some good saves.”
The loss for UCLA was its first ever against Arizona. The Bruins
now hold a 10-1 advantage all-time in the series.
“We are excited,” Tobias said. “This is a
great case where a team like UCLA comes in here and we are an up
and coming program trying to establish ourselves as a
UCLA.”
The loss to Arizona dampened much of the Bruins’
enthusiasm following the team’s dramatic one-goal victory
over Arizona State on Friday night. Junior Crystal James scored the
game-winner, taking a pass from teammate Danesha Adams in the 89th
minute and shooting the ball past goalkeeper Kim Bingham and into
the open net.
The victory, however, was by no means total domination. Arizona
State outshot the Bruins 12-11 in what was a very evenly played
match.
UCLA now has one match left to right itself before postseason
play begins later this month ““ a matchup with crosstown rival
USC (9-8-1, 4-4-1) next Sunday. NCAA Tournament pairings will be
announced one week from today.