Going into their final homestand of the regular season this weekend, the No. 1 UCLA women’s soccer team finds itself in a similar position to the one they were in last year at this time.
Currently, they have a sizeable lead in the Pac-10 conference standings with a record of 5-0, although not quite as large as the lead they held last year at this time, when they had a record of 7-0.
The team is facing opponents they hold advantages over and should beat, similar to the opponent that the Bruins faced this exact weekend last year.
The team can only hope that the similarities of these two scenarios stop there.
When the Bruins (12-1-2, 5-0 Pac-10) face off against Arizona State (9-7-1, 3-2-1) tonight and Arizona (6-10-1, 1-4-1) on Sunday, the team will be looking for a different result from last year’s game against Oregon. Last season, the Bruins traveled to Eugene to take on the Ducks with an unblemished conference record, only to lose 2-1 in double overtime.
Senior goalkeeper Valerie Henderson understands the importance of not overlooking any opponent, citing last year’s loss at Oregon as evidence of what can happen when they do.
“We have to look at last year,” Henderson said. “We clinched the Pac-10 and then we lost to Oregon. We can’t overlook teams because people are out to get us and we have to play our best game every time.”
Unfortunately for the Bruins, this habit of losing winnable games at the end of the season has been a disturbing trend for the team.
“Historically, we have started off fast but tended to take our foot off the gas,” coach Jill Ellis said. “And I asked the team today in practice, “˜Are you going to take your foot off the gas’ and they said “˜No.’ And I asked them again, “˜Are you going to take your foot off the gas’ and again they said “˜No.’ And that is to make them aware of the fact that they need to be accountable and that they control their own destiny.
“What we have done a very good job of this year has been not overlooking opponents and focusing on the game.”
Senior forward Danesha Adams is well aware of the Bruins’ pattern of losing “little” games at the end of the season, and is adamant about changing that trend.
“We’ve won the Pac-10 every year I’ve been here, but, you know, we have lost little games at the end of the day,” Adams said. “My freshman year, we ended up having to tie (for) the Pac-10 championship with Arizona because we had a stupid loss at the end. So the end is kind of important.”
First up for the Bruins are the Sun Devils. While the Bruins hold an advantage over Arizona State in terms of record and personnel, Ellis thinks highly of the team’s play and views them as a tough opponent who could potentially pose some problems for the Bruins.
“I’ve taken a look at Arizona State and I have seen them play on film a lot,” Ellis said. “I saw them dominate Santa Clara in the first half and saw them tie Stanford. So they are a very good team. It just shows that in our conference, any team can beat any team on any given day.”
On Sunday, the Bruins face off against one of the conference doormats in Arizona, but again, both players and coaches stress the importance of not relying on their record to win games.
“We just have to stay focused,” Adams said. “(Last year against Oregon) I think we kind of knew we were going to win the Pac-10 and knew that even if we lost that game we still were going to win. I think we have to go with a positive attitude that, “˜yeah, we are undefeated in the Pac-10 right now, but that means nothing.’
“Every team’s out to get us, every team wants to do what Oregon did to us last year. You know, they want to beat us at the end and just cause us some havoc come tournament time, and we don’t want to deal with that.”