With one game left in the regular season and the Pac-10 title already in hand, the UCLA men’s soccer team is nowhere close to being in the clear.
In fact, Saturday’s match against the San Diego State Aztecs may prove to be one of the most critical matches the No. 10 Bruins have played all season.
The Rating Percentage Index is a system used in collegiate sports that combines a number of different elements, including strength-of-schedule, to provide an in-depth rankings structure for postseason play.
And with the NCAA tournament right around the corner and UCLA sitting in the No. 5 slot in the national RPI rankings, coach Jorge Salcedo understands that Saturday’s game is far from meaningless.
“It’s an extremely important game,” Salcedo said after Thursday’s practice. “In the latest RPI we were No. 5 and two of the teams ahead of us, (North) Carolina tied yesterday and Northwestern lost yesterday. That gives us a chance of being in the top four.”
Obviously, the higher the Bruins are in the RPI rankings, the better their chances are of receiving a higher seed in the tournament.
Consequently, the higher a team is seeded, the more home games it receives during the tournament. And seeing how UCLA is 6-0-1 at home this season, with all three of its losses coming on the road, home-field advantage is definitely something UCLA is striving for.
A factor that will certainly help the Bruins is that they have gone against four teams in the top 25 of the RPI, managing a record of 3-1-1 in those games, as well as having faced three teams in the NSCAA Top 25, going 3-1 in those contests.
But Salcedo is confident that his team will not have a letdown Saturday against SDSU, a team they tied 2-2 earlier in the season on the Aztecs’ home turf.
“I thought that in these last two days of practice there was no complacency,” Salcedo said. “There’s no one thinking that since we clinched (the Pac-10 title) last week we can take our foot off the gas. I think their attitude is where it needs to be for Saturday night.”
Salcedo has also stressed to his players the importance of finishing strong. Since the Bruins went on a 10-match unbeaten streak earlier in the season, UCLA holds a record of 1-2-1 in its last four matches, and is looking to regain its early season form.
“We had early season success, went on a long run where we won a lot of games and then we went through a tough period,” Salcedo said. “I think the teams that go through some successful times and some difficult times, and then can regain their edge again, that becomes a very difficult team to play against.”
“That’s what we want to be.”