The UCLA women’s soccer team (17-1-2, 7-0-2 Pac-10) has
worked toward one goal all year: winning the program’s first
NCAA championship.
The team’s hard work was rewarded by the NCAA selection
committee with a No. 1 seed in the upper right bracket of the
64-team playoff. The Bruins received an automatic bid by virtue of
earning the Pac-10 title with their 2-1 victory against Arizona
State on Nov. 6.
“I feel great,” coach Jill Ellis said. “I
think we played a difficult schedule this year in the conference
and non-conference. I think the selection committee rewards teams
for going out and playing challenging schedules.”
Overall, 30 bids were given automatically to conference
champions while the rest of the field was filled out by 34 at-large
teams. The top 16 teams were seeded and divided among the four
different regional brackets. Pennsylvania State, Portland, and the
University of North Carolina received the other top regional
seeds.
By virtue of its No. 1 seeding, UCLA will host the first two
rounds of tournament play at Drake Stadium. The Bruins will open
the playoffs on Friday at 5 p.m. against Southwestern Athletic
Conference champions the Mississippi Valley State Devilettes. Drake
Stadium will also play host to another first-round match between UC
Riverside and Colorado at 7:30 p.m. The winners of these two
matches will play each other on Sunday at 1 p.m.
UCLA has never faced Mississippi Valley or UC Riverside, but
earlier this year, the Bruins played Colorado for the first time
and defeated the Buffaloes 2-0.
Even though the Bruins aren’t very familiar with their
potential opponents, they are relishing the opportunity to face
teams that they might not otherwise get a chance to play.
“That’s one of the cool things about the draw this
year,” said Ellis. “We’re playing some teams that
we’re not that familiar with coming here. I think
that’s fun. Every year it would always be a local team, but I
think it’s great to play teams we haven’t
played.”
Having made back-to-back appearances in the College Cup (Final
Four) the past two years, the Bruin team has cemented itself as one
of soccer’s elite programs and an annual challenger for the
national title.
Last year, UCLA was seeded 11th nationally but made its way up
the field, shutting out five consecutive opponents before suffering
a loss to Notre Dame in penalty kicks. This year, the Bruins will
play the role of favorite to win it all as one of the top regional
seeds.
The Bruins have shown all year with their play that such respect
is not unwarranted. UCLA has been ranked in the top four for most
of the year; sometimes it has placed as high as third and has never
been never rated below sixth. The team’s only loss this
season was to fellow No. 1 seed Penn State in a Sept. 9 game that
ended only after going into double overtime.
“I wasn’t surprised that it [the UCLA team] was one
of the top four seeds,” said Ellis. “I think we have
some good wins against Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Cal, those are all
top-10 caliber teams. We’ve had some pretty good
results.”
Indeed, UCLA has fared extremely well this year against
tournament teams. The Bruins have taken on nine different teams
that received entries to this year’s field of 64 and have
compiled an impressive record of 7-1-1.
Looking ahead, UCLA could potentially face cross-town rival USC
in the quarterfinals, 17-time national champion North Carolina in
the semifinals and possibly end up in a rematch with No. 1 Penn
State in the finals to avenge the Bruins’ only loss of the
year.
But don’t expect this team to be looking that far ahead
just yet. Before the players can even begin to comtemplate
potential matchups later on in the tournament, they have to take
care of business, focus on the tasks at hand and live up to the
expectations that come with being a No.1 seed.
“I’ve been doing this too long to look ahead,”
said Ellis. “We’re just excited to get the tournament
started.”