The pressure is higher. The reward couldn’t be greater.
The stakes are immeasurable. But as the top-seeded UCLA softball
team begins Women’s College World Series play tonight against
Tennessee, the Bruins aren’t thinking about the greater
meaning behind winning a national championship this season.
Instead, a seasoned Bruin team enters tonight’s matchup with
Tennessee as if it were any other game. “We don’t make
anything bigger than what it is,” senior third baseman Andrea
Duran said. “A lot of us are experienced in that now, and
we’re just going to go in with a calm kind of
confidence.” And though the Bruins are narrowly focused on
the means to bring home a national title, it is hard to ignore what
lies at the end if the Bruins are successful. It would be the
seniors’ third national championship in four years. It would
also most likely be UCLA’s 100th NCAA title. And it would
avenge a painful loss to Michigan in last year’s World
Series. Although many teams would try to take inspiration from all
of the above factors, the Bruin softball team is different. If
anyone should try and be an extra source of motivation for the
team, it’s the seniors, who have a chance to finish their
UCLA careers at a pinnacle. But the seniors have just the opposite
mind-set. They are running on the same fuel they’ve been
running on their whole careers. If the postseason has been any
indication so far, there’s still plenty left in the tank.
“(The senior) class is just very unique in that they’re
not motivated that way,” Enquist said. “They have a
perception about them that they don’t have anything to prove
because of how much excellence they have shown over time. That
peacefulness you see is not really a show. “They’re
driven, they want it, but what they’ve done to this point is
so incredibly special, and as a coach, when you have seniors that
don’t have a sense of having to prove something, you
don’t worry about them grabbing it too tightly.” After
sweeping through NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals, the Bruins
come into this year’s World Series fresh, relaxed and
confident. Sophomore pitcher Anjelica Selden has had a much lighter
workload this postseason as compared to last season. In 2005 she
pitched in five elimination games before the World Series even
started. The Bruins have played the minimum number of games to get
to Oklahoma City. “I feel like I’m more relaxed because
I have that experience from last year, especially since last year
was such a fight for us the whole time,” Selden said. Another
thing the Bruins have going for them is their familiarity with most
of the teams in the World Series. UCLA went 7-2 against Arizona,
Arizona State, Oregon State and Northwestern during the season. The
Bruins also notched victories over Texas and today’s
opponent, Tennessee, in last year’s College World Series. But
the Bruins are trying to push all the numbers to the back of their
minds and begin yet another season today. For Enquist and the
Bruins, nothing much changes. They’ve been here before.
“The core tenets of the program have remained the same for
over a decade,” Enquist said. “That standard is one
they understand, and once you get here you have to remain
emotionally disciplined to your routine. “The teams who
remain poised are the teams that end up playing softball the
longest.”
ALL-AMERICAN: Three Bruins were honored with
All-American selections Wednesday. Duran and Selden were named to
the first team while senior second baseman Caitlin Benyi was named
to the second team. It was Duran’s first selection,
Selden’s second selection and Benyi’s third selection.
UCLA now has produced 86 All-Americans since 1978.