While most students and their families will be busy putting up holiday decorations at home, the Bruins will be doing their best to avoid staying home.
On Saturday at 7 p.m., the No. 1-seed UCLA women’s soccer team (21-0-2) will clash with No. 3-seed Duke (15-5-3) in the national quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, with a ticket to Cary, N.C., and the College Cup on the line.
“We are very aware that if we win this game, we go to the College Cup,” redshirt junior forward Kara Lang said. “But we are not overlooking this game at all. We know how important this is.”
The Blue Devils will certainly present a more than formidable challenge for the Bruins, especially because they hail from a different coast, a different conference and may play a different brand of soccer than the teams UCLA has played all season.
Lang said that West Coast teams tend to focus more on technical skill, and while East Coast teams often play more aggressively, coach Jill Ellis said the Blue Devils remind her a little bit of her own squad.
“Sometimes there is a difference in playing style between teams in different regions,” Ellis said. “But I think with Duke, they are very similar to us. They have a lot of technical skill. They are a very talented team.”
The Blue Devils certainly do bring their share of talent to Westwood. Senior defender Christie McDonald anchors a defense that is the pride of this Duke team. Duke senior goalkeeper Cassidy Powers has stepped into her role as a starter and allowed just .80 goals per game. The team has allowed only 19 on the season.
Complementing the defense is the one-two punch of juniors KayAnne Gummersall and Elisabeth Redmond, who have recorded 14 and 12 goals respectively.
Blue Devil coach Robbie Church has emphasized the importance for a quick start from his team. Duke scored the first goal of the game in the 16th minute against Virginia in the Round of 16 and eventually took down the Cavaliers, 2-0, to advance to Saturday’s contest.
Like the Blue Devils, the Bruins have sometimes struggled out of the gate, so the first goal of the match may be pivotal in setting the tone at Drake Stadium.
Yet for all the similarities between the two squads ““ a strong defense, a senior goalkeeper maturing in her new role, offensive weapons, technical skill and first-half struggles ““ the stark contrasts in the team’s two roads to the quarters must not be forgotten.
Duke lost five times in the regular season, mostly to the nation’s top teams. Of the five losses, three were to Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida State ““ all teams ranked in the top 10. Despite playing the best the West has to offer, the Bruins have yet to drop a contest.
And while Duke’s road to Los Angeles has been relatively easy ““ with wins over Radford and William & Mary before Virginia ““ UCLA’s road has been perhaps the toughest in the tournament. After downing Fresno State, the Bruins had to beat both University of San Diego and USC to get to Duke. Both the Toreros and the Trojans were ranked higher than the Blue Devils in the last NSCAA poll of the season.
“Playing USD and USC, it allowed us to get our elbows in there a little bit and get used to playing physical,” Lang said.
And of course UCLA’s high seed earned the team this game at home. Duke will have to travel thousands of miles to get to Drake and adjust to a time change, among other things.
“It’s just like, if we were to win this game, how we would have to travel across the country to North Carolina,” Ellis said. “At this point, you do what you have to do to be ready to play. We’ve been very good at home, but really, it’s just nice that the players can go home and have Thanksgiving dinner with their families.”
But even more than the home-field advantage, UCLA is banking on experience to get it through to the Final Four ““ a place they know very well.
“It’s kind of like the first time you go into a job interview,” Ellis said of playing in the national quarterfinals. “The first time you’re nervous, but the second and third time, you really know more of what to expect.”