The No. 4 UCLA men’s soccer team travels to two Pacific
Northwest venues that have not been kind to it in the past.
Today the Bruins battle Oregon State (10-3-0) in Corvallis where
UCLA has been upended two consecutive times, and Sunday they visit
a Washington (4-5-1) team that has sent the Bruins home unsatisfied
in each of their last three visits to Seattle.
UCLA (8-1-2) is coming off of a victory against No. 1 Stanford
last weekend, and is very motivated to continue its success this
weekend.
“We’ve lost to OSU and UW the last two years and
this is the last chance for (the seniors) to go up there,”
midfielder Jimmy Frazelle said. “We really want to take it to
them and win these two games.”
Both Oregon State and Washington are powerful offensively, and
UCLA head coach Tom Fitzgerald knows that UCLA cannot afford to
take anything for granted this weekend.
“Oregon State has done very very well this year, and
Washington is always difficult at their place,” Fitzgerald
said. “It’s going to be a challenge for us to go on the
road and get two more victories, but we are certainly capable of
doing that.
OSU has proven itself to be a quality team in several of its
matches this year, including a match against Stanford in which the
Cardinal needed an overtime period to squeak out a 1-0 win.
It is especially important for UCLA to continue to win during
the critical conference schedule.
“Winning these conference games is the most important
thing right now because the winner of the Pac-10 gets an automatic
bid to the NCAA tournament,” goalkeeper Zach Wells said.
“If we do our work then there won’t be any doubt during
the (tournament) selection process.”
UCLA will head into this weekend without any injured players,
and with confidence that it is still performing at the level it
displayed last weekend.
“I feel great about the way we’re playing right now
and I feel like we’re going to put some goals on the board no
matter what,” Frazelle said. “We’ve been doing
very well in practice and I think that’s going to carry over
into the games this weekend.”