Two weeks ago, UCLA suffered a close loss to undefeated USC, which the Bruins will try to bounce back from when they compete for the Pac-12 title this weekend.
No. 1 USC aside, No. 7 UCLA goes into the Pac-12 championships this weekend facing a stacked conference – California, Washington and Stanford also rank in the top 10 – and will need be consistent with its successes from earlier in the year to keep its season going.
“We have a little more confidence going into the weekend after looking at all the results from the year,” said coach Amy Fuller Kearney. “We can focus on having a great result this weekend but also keep our sights on the end of the year.”
To earn a bid to the NCAA championships in June, a team must either win its conference or earn one of the 11 at-large bids given out by a selection committee based on the team’s results over the year.
With three Pac-12 teams ranked ahead of UCLA, the Bruins may need to rely on an at-large bid to continue their season into June if they don’t win this weekend.
But fortunately for UCLA, it’s likely that a decent number of the at-large bids will go to Pac-12 schools, said junior Carolina Paini.
“We’re most likely going to see the top four schools that finish at Pac-12 championships at NCAAs,” she said.
“Since this entire year we’ve been racing these schools, we’re 98 percent sure we’re going to make it.”
And that likely bid means that the Bruins can focus on old rivalries instead of stressing about making the postseason.
“We always want to beat Washington because (the team’s coach) never mentions us as being very competitive with them – even though we’ve beaten them,” said senior Jessica McGuire. “But as far as winning the championship, we never really think about them much.”
The Huskies, however, are currently ranked No. 4 and in order to win the Pac-12, the Bruins will need to upset them, No. 2 California and the Trojans. This is something Fuller Kearney sees as possible.
“For the first time in my tenure here at UCLA, it is anybody’s race this weekend. USC’s going in ranked No. 1, but there are so many strong competitors,” she said.
“We have seedings going in and rankings but that’s why we race – to see who’s best on that day and it’s anybody’s race until they cross the finish line.”