The UCLA men’s soccer team can take a deep breath now that
the seedings for the NCAA tournament have been announced.
With a No. 5 seeding, the Bruins (12-4-3, 7-1-2 Pac-10) not only
received a first-round bye, but are also guaranteed to play at home
in Drake Stadium for their first two games.
“It’s huge,” coach Jorge Salcedo said.
“It’s any coach’s hope to be in the top eight in
the tournament because that means you’re assured of two home
games.
“In that third game, anything can happen and it really
doesn’t matter where you’re playing because
you’re playing to go to the College Cup.”
Salcedo’s satisfaction with the seeding was echoed by most
of the players who were unsure of where they would be seeded prior
to the release of the rankings.
“I was very excited,” senior Jonathan Bornstein
said, “It’s even better than we did last year. You
can’t really ask for anything better than that.”
UCLA’s first match will be on Nov. 22 against the winner
of the game between Big West champion San Francisco and Southern
Methodist, which received an at-large bid.
“The fact that we have a bye means that we’re
playing a team that has already won one game in the tournament and,
of course, the work that you do throughout the season prepares you
for the postseason, but there’s nothing like winning your
first postseason game,” Salcedo said.
The Bruins received an automatic bid into the tournament when
they captured their fourth consecutive Pac-10 title. Although the
Pac-10 appeared to have several high-caliber teams at the beginning
of the season, the conference ended the season with just three
representatives at this year’s tournament: UCLA, California,
and San Diego State.
“If you were to look at our record as a conference in
non-conference games, it was very high,” Salcedo said.
“I’m surprised and I’m disappointed that
Washington and Oregon State didn’t get in, because you pull
for your own conference.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Atlantic Coast
Conference set a record for the most teams being sent to the
tournament with eight, and the Big East Conference will have seven
teams in the 48-team field.
On UCLA’s half of the bracket is the tournament’s
top-seed, Maryland. In their second game of the season, the Bruins
dominated the Terrapins to record a 4-0 victory. If the two teams
were to win their first three games, they would meet in a semifinal
match-up in Cary, N.C.
“Looking at Maryland, they obviously have a good record,
but their record isn’t that different from ours,”
Salcedo said. “They have a couple more wins but we beat
them.”
“To be honest, it didn’t really matter where we
ended up,” junior captain Patrick Ianni said.
“It’s just a matter of winning games. So we’re
just going to focus on the first game and just prepare for that.
That’s all we can do.”