In the spirit of Halloween, I give you the scariest sports story
on campus.
They involve spells, witchcraft, black cats and primarily a
curse ““ a curse far greater than the curse of the Bambino,
the curse of the Billy Goat or the curse of Steve Lavin (wait, he
was just bad):
The curse of the UCLA women’s soccer team.
How else do you explain the following:
“¢bull; UCLA lost a playoff game last year despite giving up 0
shots, 0 shots on goal and 0 corner kicks.
“¢bull; UCLA lost a playoff game the year before that after
allowing three shots compared to taking 28 themselves.
“¢bull; In 2000, the Bruins were leading North Carolina in the
NCAA championship game, 1-0, but gave up two goals in the final 27
minutes, the second being an own goal. The team has a history of
critical players getting hurt before critical parts of the season
(Jill Oakes, 2002; Lindsay Greco, 2001; Nandi Pryce, 2000; Tracey
Winzen, 1999).
Are they cursed, or is it bad luck?
“I hope we’re not cursed,” coach Jill Ellis
said. “Soccer is such a high-speed and high-contact sport. I
don’t think we’re cursed despite all the
adversity.”
You might attribute all of it to mere flukes.
I was not a believer in the curse either, until the past two
weeks.
Consider the team’s goalkeeping situation, the most
important position on any soccer team.
Oct. 19 ““ Starter Sarah Lombardo suffers a season-ending
injury. Freshman Arianna Criscione was named the starter, and the
team has only one active goalie.
Oct. 21 ““Â Third stringer and walk-on Jaclyn Harwood
returns to the team as a backup goalie. Harwood had taken time off
to study for LSATs, and returned to the team after they had tried
out midfielder Whitney Jones at goalie. Jones hadn’t played
goalie since she was seven.
Oct. 23 ““ Criscione shows up to practice wearing a boot.
Luckily, it was only because of a mildly sprained ankle.
Oct. 26 ““ Harwood breaks her middle finger in warmups,
leaving the team with one goalie again.
Tuesday ““ Softball catcher Emily Zaplatosch joins the team
as the new backup goalie, even though she hadn’t played
soccer since high school.
Granted, Zaplatosch was a soccer star in high school, compiling
52 shutouts ““ 17 in a row. But when you’re on your
fourth goalie of the year (she played in Wednesday’s match),
something is going on.
“My teammates are great,” Zaplatosch said Wednesday,
after meeting them for the first time an hour before the game.
Not only did she not meet any of her teammates until an hour
before the game, that’s when Zaplatosch received all of her
equipment.
If the team didn’t have anything of Zaplatosch’s
size in storage, they would’ve had to make an emergency
shopping trip.
All this for a fourth goalkeeper, a player rarely used.
Some teams do carry four goalkeepers, but seldom use all four,
and when they do, it’s not because three were injured.
“I like keeping the position more competitive,”
Ellis said. “When you carry four, the fourth never gets any
playing time.”
Well, the third hardly ever gets any playing time either.
Harwood had recorded all of two saves in the last two years.
And should Criscione and Zaplatosch go down, Ellis could either
use Jones or a couple of students who walked into her office this
week and volunteered their services. At this point, I
wouldn’t call it unthinkable.
“I’ve played soccer for years and never got
injured,” Zaplatosch said Tuesday night. “Knock on
wood, it won’t happen to me now.”
Then again, Zaplatosch probably just jinxed herself. For the
sake of the women’s soccer team, let’s hope Criscione
will not do the same.
Gilbert thinks the Expos are cursed. Youppi!!! E-mail
Quiñonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.