Coach Jill Ellis has had her share of talented recruiting
classes pass through her program during seven seasons as the UCLA
women’s soccer head coach.
She doesn’t throw around praise lightly.
“As far as numbers go, I would have to say that I
haven’t had a freshman class have as much impact as this one
is having,” Ellis said.
“It’s really exciting to have this much success from
them right now, and it also bodes well for the future.”
True freshmen Kara Lang, Christina DiMartino, Erin Hardy,
Caitlyn Mac Kechnie and McCall Zerboni have all seen significant
playing time for the Bruins this year, and redshirt freshman
defender Theresa Oda-Burns was making waves before tearing her ACL
against Santa Clara earlier this season.
Hardy has been an anchor for the Bruins defensive unit, starting
every game so far, and Zerboni and DiMartino have quickly
established themselves as two of the Bruins’ biggest scoring
threats.
But, above them all, it has been Lang who has really been the
gem of the freshman class and lived up to her billing as a highly
acclaimed international player and preseason All-American.
Lang had a hat trick in just her second collegiate game against
San Diego and has been arguably the premier go-to player for the
Bruins in the early going.
Despite the early contributions and success that the new Bruins
have experienced so far, Ellis and her players are still going
through growing pains while dealing with the hiccups that come with
a team full of youth and inexperience at the NCAA level.
“I find myself having to re-emphasize myself a lot
more,” Ellis said.
“Things that I would only have to say once or twice to my
veteran players I am having to say six or seven times to some of
the younger players.”
A good chunk of the teaching that coach Ellis does with the
newer players involves situational thinking in games and how to
keep focused throughout the duration of an entire season.
“At this level, teams can exploit individual mental
breakdowns,” Ellis said. “In high school, a lot of the
players were the best athletes on their team and when they did have
mental breakdowns, they weren’t as costly a lot of the
time.
“Now that they are playing with equal or better athletes,
the mistakes are a lot harder to recover from.”
And with all of the challenges that Ellis has faced coaching
this young team, the Bruins have enjoyed a great start to the 2005
season.
They have won seven out of their first eight games of the
season, which have included victories over No. 14 Princeton and No.
4 Santa Clara.
The Bruins’ only loss of the season was in a
double-overtime thriller in early September to then-No. 4 Penn
State at the UCLA Women’s Cup.
“This far into the season, we are starting to develop
chemistry and get players in their right positions,” Ellis
said. “Now we have to work on keeping the ball in our
possession more consistently and getting more good scoring
chances.”
If the Bruins are to continue improving and reach their goal of
winning a national championship title, it will have to be a
combined effort from both the younger and older players.
“In most years, I know exactly what to expect from my
players,” Ellis said. “Having such a large group of
freshmen has added an element of surprise in that I never know
exactly what I’m going to get on any given night.
“It’s been a lot of fun to see the potential of some
of these players and the rest of the year is going to be very
exciting.”