This is the part of the season when the UCLA women’s
soccer team could develop into a championship-caliber team.
With many of the technical aspects of playing solid soccer
perfected, the Bruins (12-2, 3-0 Pac-10) will be focusing on
playing as a team when they take on Arizona tonight in Tucson,
Ariz. and Arizona State on Sunday in Tempe, Ariz.
“We are all starting to come together as a group, and our
team is really bonding,” junior Danesha Adams said.
“We’ve been getting familiar with each other lately.
The biggest thing right now is for us to learn to play for each
other and know that no matter what happens, everyone is going to be
there for each other.”
Facing unranked Arizona (8-6-1, 1-2-1) and Arizona State (6-6-2,
1-3), the No. 3 Bruins could probably slide to victories this
weekend without playing to their highest capability.
But the team knows that just getting wins without focusing on
improving and working together may benefit them now, but would hurt
them when the playoffs begin.
“We have the talent this year, but we just have to go out
there and pull it all together,” Adams said.
“We’ve had some games when we didn’t pull
together and still got a win, but that’s not going to cut it
in the (NCAA) tournament. I think we are getting close to
continually playing as a team.”
Championship-caliber teams play consistently, which the Bruins
are still working to achieve. UCLA has been managing wins with very
strong halves, but at times the Bruins seem to lack communication
and an attitude of confidence in their own abilities.
“Our team needs to step on the field and play with some
arrogance,” coach Jill Ellis said. “We have to believe
we can get the result and play with confidence. When we have the
right attitude, we are capable of playing some unbelievable soccer.
I’m excited for the way this team will play when everything
comes together.”
Helping the Bruins develop closeness as a team is their ability
to play on the road. UCLA has had only two road trips this season,
and while home games make the team comfortable, they also leads to
distractions that detract from team bonding time.
“This is going to be a good road trip for us to get away
for a while and spend more time with each other,” Adams said.
“It will be good for us to get away from the atmosphere at
UCLA and do some team things in Arizona.”
The NCAA Tournament selection is in only two weeks, and it would
be easy for the players to look ahead to a good seeding, losing
focus on the difficult games they must play in the next few
weeks.
To get a top seed similar to the Bruins’ No. 1 seeding
last year, UCLA will have to win every game for the rest of the
season. That leaves little room for error, especially when every
team wants to topple the three-time defending conference
champions.
Ellis believes that looking to the playoffs is not all
detrimental, since it will motivate the players to take this
weekend’s games seriously even though the Bruins hold 11-1
and 8-1 all-time records against Arizona and Arizona State,
respectively.
“We know that we have to win out the rest of the season to
assure that we can control our destiny,” Ellis said.
“We want to win our conference. We want the automatic bid to
the playoffs. We want home field in the playoffs. So it is really
on the players to show up and deliver.”
Although neither of this weekend’s opponents are stellar
teams, in a conference with so much parity as the Pac-10, every
team challenges the Bruins.
“I expect physical, hard, competitive games,” Ellis
said. “They both play with a lot of emotions, so they are
dangerous teams. It’s the conference, and there is not a team
in our conference that is not capable of beating any other
team.”