For the first time in three weeks, the women’s soccer team shifted Thursday’s practice up by an hour.
It was just one of the few accommodations the team had to make for a road trip to Oregon after three weeks of home games.
“The road’s for sure a different aspect, but this team is great at adjusting and playing our game no matter what,” said senior goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland.
On paper, UCLA’s opponent on Friday, Oregon State (0-12-3, 0-6 Pac-12), might not seem like a team with a lot of teeth. Through 15 games, the Beavers have only managed to score two goals and have yet to find their first win of the season.
Oregon State’s matchup against the No. 1 ranked team in the country might seem like a foregone conclusion, but UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell said her team is on the lookout to make sure an upset doesn’t happen in Beaver territory.
“I know they’re a team that’s going to be really desperate, and we’re going to be like the carrot out there dangling for them,” Cromwell said. “They’re going to be super energized and ready to play us.”
After Friday, the Bruins move south from Corvallis to Eugene, where they’ll face the Oregon Ducks (6-6-2, 2-3-1) just two days later.
According to Cromwell, the Ducks will bring a set of challenges different from the Beavers. While UCLA (13-0-2, 5-0-1) anticipates facing a “desperate” Oregon State team motivated by its search for its first win, facing Oregon means facing a team that is familiar with the UCLA players and coaches.
“I know the coach (Oregon’s Kat Mertz) really well. I coached with her for the U-20 national team when we won the World Cup in Chile in 2008,” Cromwell said. “She used to be a UCLA assistant coach, so she knows the girls here very well. She knows us very well as coaches, so it’s going to be really organized.”
In addition to Mertz, Oregon’s assistant coach Manny Martins also served as an assistant coach for the Bruins from 2011 to 2012 and will be familiar with most of UCLA’s starting lineup, nine of whom were active players during Martins’ stint in Westwood.
While the main objective of the Oregon trip is getting six more points toward the Pac-12 standings, the trip won’t purely be for business, as the team will be taking full advantage of the sightseeing opportunities up north with some planned trips to lake houses by the coaching staff.
“I just remember Oregon being so pretty. … It’s real pretty up there, and we’ll get a change of weather – it’ll be cooler,” said senior defender Abby Dahlkemper about going there in her sophomore year. “It’ll be fun to see and experience that part of the country.”
Though this trip will begin three weeks worth of away games for UCLA, the regular season finale will be played in Los Angeles against USC, so the Bruins will only have to make travel preparations for this weekend and the next.
“Two weekends in a row isn’t too bad,” Cromwell said. “It’s not preferred, but we feel like we’ve been home forever, so the timing of it is fine.”