Seniors play last game as Bruins

CARY, N.C. “”mdash; After each of their preliminary games in the NCAA Tournament, the seven seniors on the UCLA women’s soccer team hugged one another as a group, happy to have the opportunity to play one more game and extend their time as Bruins.

Last week, they hugged and then pulled grass from the field at Drake Stadium to commemorate their last home game.

They were not about to break routine on Friday, after what would be the final game of their Bruin careers.

“Pretty similar,” senior midfielder McCall Zerboni said of the seniors’ postgame ritual. “(I) hugged every single one of them, except this time, there were tears involved. A little longer hug, a little more tears.”

While tears were appropriate considering the result, this irregularly large group has nothing to be upset about in terms of their body of work.

The Bruin seniors, who played their last game with a loss to North Carolina, have been to the College Cup all four years of their respective careers.

They have won four Pac-10 Championships, and they have an overall record of 85-9-6 with only one of those losses coming at Drake Stadium.

Coach Jill Ellis said that although she is very excited about the incoming class, the reality that the seniors are leaving finally struck her.

“Today, I did some reflection to what we will have next year, and I’ve always been in a thing of looking forward, but in my mind I was like “˜Wow, we’re not going to have them,'” Ellis said Saturday. “I think that was the first time I thought, just, “˜Wow.’

“They’re going to be hard to replace, both what they’ve done, but more importantly, who they are and what they’ve given.”

The Bruins will lose leaders in all facets of the game going into 2009.

Midfielder Christina DiMartino is the Pac-10 Player of the Year and has been a scoring threat throughout her career. Toward the end of the season, DiMartino stuck so many 30-yard goals, they almost became her signature.

Midfielder McCall Zerboni, who has been cited as the team’s “emotional leader” by Ellis on numerous occasions, had to end her career hobbling off the field with an ankle sprain.

Defender Erin Hardy anchored a defense that allowed a school-record six goals all season, and only four in the regular season.

Goalkeeper Ashley Thompson filled the big shoes left by All-American Valerie Henderson and was a huge reason the Bruins’ opponents were limited to the low number of goals they had.

In addition, midfielder Caitlyn Mac Kechnie and defenders Coco Kleinert and Catherine Calvert all contributed to the Bruins’ success each of the past four years.

Zerboni said that the sheer size of the group says something about their perseverance.

“It’s the college game. People are from out of town; people want to play,” Zerboni said. “There’s so much involved in choosing a school. You have transfers or people lose their love for the game, and they quit. The fact that there’s so many of us just says that we loved each other and what this program had to offer.”

Although they won’t play as Bruins ever again, DiMartino feels a sense of gratification toward everything this group has accomplished.

“It’s a journey and a hard, long road,” she said. “I’m just proud of these girls that we got here all four years. It’s very special, and I wouldn’t trade it.”

Zerboni added, “It makes it worth it, national championship or not. The people and the bonds are the things I’ll carry with me.”

WPS COMBINE: Bruin seniors will get very little time to rest even though their collegiate careers have come to a close.

Starting Thursday and running through Sunday, many of the UCLA seniors will participate in the Women’s Professional Soccer League Combine to showcase their talent before the draft Jan. 16.

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