Their season was as fleeting as this weekend’s November
rain shower.
On Saturday the Bruins still had a season to cling to. On Sunday
they didn’t.
But for three Bruins on the men’s soccer team, the 2-1
loss at the hands of St. John’s caused more than a few
emotional tears; it was more of an indescribable feeling of
numbness.
Even though seniors Mike Enfield, Aaron Lopez and Ahmed Khalil
put extra emphasis on looking at the positives of what they have
done in the past four years, making an early exit in the NCAA
Tournament will undoubtedly leave a piercing aftertaste that will
be hard to purge.
“We had higher expectations than most people, so I would
have to say for myself that this was an unsuccessful season for
me,” Lopez said. “Our main goal was to win a national
championship, and we came up a long way short.”
“You never want to lose but I am grateful for what we had
in 2002,” Khalil added. “I wish we could have done a
little better this year. We just fell a little short.”
After claiming the NCAA Championship in 2002, the team has
fallen considerably short of reaching that goal the past two years.
In 2003, the team fell to eventual-champion Indiana in the
quarterfinals. This year, the Bruins’ season ended one round
earlier.
But what was originally thought to be a rebuilding year with six
new faces in the starting lineup, the Bruins still claimed their
third consecutive conference title and finished a respectable
14-4-2.
And while the loss is still fresh in their minds, Enfield
remains optimistic that the Bruins will inevitably learn from the
defeat.
“I’m sure it’s tough on them, but it’s
only going to make them stronger for the next years they have with
the program,” Enfield said. “They are going to remember
this loss, and the one last year, and it’s just going to keep
making them stronger and hopefully they’ll be able to get a
championship of their own.”
Though each of the seniors has won a national championship,
coach Jorge Salcedo was hoping to claim his first as head coach of
the program in his inaugural season. However, he was in no way
satisfied with the end result of this season.
“I don’t think you’re successful here at UCLA
unless you make it all the way to the Final Four and give it a good
shot at the championship,” Salcedo said. “It’s
always our goal, year in and year out. We fell short, regardless of
how young we are, regardless of the fact we have nine guys coming
back next year. We had a good enough team to go farther than we
did.”
Now the Bruins will have to wait until next season to exact
vengeance.
For returning players like freshman Marvell Wynne, there will be
plenty of time in the off-season to contemplate what to do
differently. And plenty of time for the bitter disappointment of an
early unexpected loss to set in and linger.
“I don’t ever want to feel this way again,” a
teary-eyed Wynne said.