Just prior to the start of Sunday’s game against Cal, the UCLA women’s soccer team honored its seven seniors with flowers and a special ceremony.
One of the first things the announcer mentioned as she introduced the group was that in the four years these seniors have played for UCLA, the Bruins have lost only one conference game.
By the end of senior weekend, despite playing unbeaten No. 5 Stanford and perennial conference power Cal in front of their parents, the Bruins managed to win both pivotal games and sustain the number of losses at one.
The No. 4 Bruins (16-0-2, 7-0 Pac-10) defeated No. 5 Stanford (17-1-1, 7-1) 1-0 on Friday and dispatched Cal 3-0 (10-7-1, 3-4-1) on Sunday, to put themselves in sole possession of first place in the conference and place themselves on the inside track to a conference title.
Despite the magnitude of the contests and the favorable results, this weekend, and especially Sunday’s game, was for the seniors.
“When we were introducing them, and they said they had only lost one conference game, it kind of struck me that, wow, that’s a phenomenal record for them,” coach Jillian Ellis said of her senior class. “As much as I’m not a big number person that shows the value of the players. They’ve been able to sustain that and do very well. We talked about it before in the locker room, that this day was about them, for them. We thanked them for their contribution. It’s not the end obviously, but they’ve just been very impactful, not only to our success, but to the success of our program.”
Christina DiMartino is one of the seniors who has meant a great deal to this team. She said that her family, who lives in New York, comes out to see her play at UCLA once a year.
They picked the right weekend.
DiMartino scored the only goal in Friday’s game again Stanford.
With the game knotted at 0-0, late in the game at the 76:36 mark, DiMartino possessed the ball from about 30 yards out, almost closer to midfield than the box. After taking a few dribbles to her left, she launched a long strike off her right foot that seemed to sail in the air for ages as it bent just around the goalie’s diving fingertips and settled perfectly into the extreme upper right corner of the net.
“She’s so dangerous, running at players from the top of the box, because she can strike with either foot,” Ellis said. “I’ve seen her do that with her left and her right. She picks out those corners. It was a world-class strike.”
Said DiMartino of the goal: “I’m not really sure what happened. I just got the ball 25 yards out, the coaches kept telling me to shoot, I saw an opening and I’m just like, “˜What the heck.'”
It was probably that type of miraculous goal that a team was going to need to break the tie on Friday. Both teams came out with an intensity that has seldom been seen this year. Stanford came out aggressive early, creating chances until UCLA got their bearings and began dominating possession. Both teams had chances, but they were hard to come by, and few were from point-blank range.
UCLA’s win leaves them as the only unbeaten team in the nation aside from No. 1 Notre Dame.
“If you’re going to play good teams, you expect games to be like that,” Ellis said.
“To be perfectly honest, evenly matched games, that’s what we need right now to really get some character. I thought we did very well. Both teams are very good and both teams had their chances, and I thought the difference was that we put ours away.”
On Sunday, another impact senior would be the hero. Senior midfielder McCall Zerboni scored the first and game-winning goal against Cal, and she said the team played harder because of the emotions they were riding on.
“I think it was a real emotional game for us,” Zerboni said.
“We came out, we came ready, and you could totally tell out there.
“I think everyone felt supported today with their friends and family back there.”
UCLA’s contest against Cal played out quite a bit differently than Friday’s. The Bruins dominated the entire game, creating chance after chance, but went into the locker room at halftime with nothing to show for it, and a 0-0 tie.
But in the second half, the Bruins kept at it, and the chances turned to goals. In the 71st minute, DiMartino drove the ball down the right side of the field into the box and shot at an awkward angle. The rebound came off into the box on the left side, and freshman Sydney Leroux possessed it quickly before dropping it back behind her to Zerboni.
Zerboni finished it off, knocking it into the bottom right side of the goal from inside the box.
“It was nice to do it for my family,” Zerboni said.
The Bruins scored two more quick goals before time expired on solid strikes from juniors Kara Lang and Lauren Wilmoth, to bring the final score to 3-0.
But the story of the weekend was strong performances from seniors, playing in their final home game in front of family ““ family, both the immediate family they grew up with, and the soccer family they have grown to love over the last four years.
“It was a little emotional,” DiMartino said of the pregame ceremony. “I was happy that my parents got to walk me out and got to be with my friends. We’re all one big family, so it was a great moment.”