UCLA heads up north in search of better first half

UCLA women’s soccer coach Jill Ellis has two primary goals
for her team this weekend when it travels to take on Oregon and
Oregon State.

Aside from two wins, of course.

Though the No. 4 Bruins (11-1, 1-0 Pac-10) boast a seven-match
winning streak, the team has fallen behind in the first half in the
last two games, including a 2-0 halftime deficit against rival USC
last Friday. In light of her players’ recent slow starts,
Ellis is looking for the Bruins to open the games this weekend with
the kind of vigor they’ve shown when closing out a game.

“The last two games we haven’t really strung it
together,” Ellis said. “That’s really going to be
my focus, getting them focused for 90 minutes.”

Ellis would also like to see the Bruins scoring from a balanced
attack, but putting two halves together is clearly the team’s
foremost aim.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what causes a slow
start, but the Bruin coach is pretty sure she has figured out her
team’s problems in the first halves of its last two
matches.

“I think it was complacency against Pepperdine, and a
little bit of a lack of composure against USC in that first
half,” Ellis said.

The lack of composure is understandable, as the Bruins were
playing their first conference match of the season at home, against
their talented rival. But complacency could be the problem from
here on out.

That’s why each of the Bruins are thinking of the
team’s record as 1-0.

“We’re 1-0 right now,” senior forward Iris
Mora said. “It’s a new season, a new everything. We
have to keep with that mentality and go there and win.”

The trip to the Pacific Northwest is never easy, Ellis said,
because the weather is so unpredictable and the fields play much
slower than does the pitch at Drake Stadium. For a team that boasts
the pace of UCLA, that presents a minor problem.

But with the host of attacking options UCLA has, the team is
confident it will be able to break down the Ducks (8-3-1, 0-2) and
the Beavers (8-4, 1-1) somehow.

“We’re dangerous on a set piece, and we’re
dangerous in the flow of the game,” Ellis said.

In fact, the Bruin coach said she has never had a team that
boasts such a number of different attacking personalities. With
forwards Mora and Kara Lang, attacking midfielders Danesha Adams
and Christina DiMartino, and the ability of defenders Jill Oakes
and Stacy Lindstrom to win balls in the air, the Bruins have the
ability to score in one of many ways.

“Kara is just a handful up top,” Ellis said.
“She’s strong and she holds the ball, so she’s
often double-teamed.

“And then you’ve got Iris who’s just hard to
keep track of. You’re not sure where she’s going to pop
up.

Danesha’s pace stretches them. DiMartino turns you
inside-out. They each have unique attributes that make it hard for
a team to focus on one.”

But if the Bruins lose focus themselves, they could once again
find themselves on the wrong end of an early deficit.

“We’re looking to stay consistent in our
play,” goalkeeper Val Henderson said.

“The last couple of games we’ve gotten down early,
and that’s not what we want. We want to make a statement
right away.”

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *