Expectations are already high for the UCLA men’s soccer team, weeks before the start of the season.
The Bruins were ranked as the No. 1 team in the country last week in the College Soccer News preseason poll. The Bruins return eight starters from last year’s team, which lost in the national title game to UC Santa Barbara.
Duke is ranked as the No. 2 team, with national champion UCSB, Wake Forest and Santa Clara rounding out the top five.
Despite the departure of star Sal Zizzo, who signed a professional contract in July with Hannover 96, UCLA is sure to field one of the nation’s premier squads.
The Bruins will look for improvement from last season’s first-rate freshman class. David Estrada led the team in scoring with 12 goals and won Soccer America’s Freshman of the Year award. Kyle Nakazawa was one of three Bruins to start in all of the team’s 24 games last season in his first year at UCLA. Goalkeeper Brian Perk made seven starts last season as a freshman behind Eric Reed.
The Bruins are also anticipating the return of two top players who sat out most of the 2006 season because of injury. Brandon Owens will be a redshirt senior after tearing his ACL last season. Owens is an experienced defender who started in 19 games as a junior. Forward Maxwell Griffin is back as well. Griffin was leading the Bruins with five goals last season when he also tore his ACL.
The talented UCLA team will be tested early in the season. The Bruins play their first regular season game in Bloomington, Ind., against No. 11 Notre Dame on Aug. 29, and on Sept. 2 they face No. 8 Indiana.
UCLA will spend a lot of time on the road in the opening weeks of its season. The trip to Indiana falls between a trip to Raleigh, N.C. for an exhibition against North Carolina State on Aug. 24 and another road game on Sept. 8 against No. 21 Creighton in Omaha, Neb. The Bruins also travel to No. 5 Santa Clara, the top-ranked opponent on their schedule, on Sept. 22.
UCLA will not play at Drake Stadium until Sept. 14, when the Bruins host Ohio State.
For the first time since 2004, UCLA and UCSB will not meet in the regular season. The Bruins and Gauchos could meet in the postseason, though, in a rematch of their championship battle.
STEPHENS, PERK JOIN U-18 TEAM: The presence of UCLA players on United States national teams was certainly a factor in the No. 1 ranking. On Wednesday, sophomores Michael Stephens and Brian Perk will travel to Shizuoka City, Japan with the U.S. Under-18 National Team to play in the SBS Cup.
Stephens and Perk are two of only four collegiate players who will make the trip with the under-18 team. The team will play Ukraine, Japan and a Shizuoka club team in the tournament.
Stephens, UCLA’s freshman of the year last season, played for the United States at the Pan-American games this summer. Perk was with the U-20 U.S. national team at the FIFA Championships, and started in a key quarterfinal win over Uruguay.
Stephens and Perk are hardly the only Bruins who have played in international competition this summer. Junior Tony Beltran started for the under-20 team at the FIFA Championships, along with former Bruin Sal Zizzo. Senior Greg Folk and sophomore Chance Myers also played with Stephens at the Pan-American Games in Brazil.