The UCLA men’s soccer team plays its first Pac-10 match of
the year on Sunday at noon against Fresno State.
That’s right. Fresno State.
This is Fresno State’s first season in the Pac-10, and
men’s soccer is the only sport in which Fresno State competes
in the Pac-10. In most other sports, the Bulldogs compete in the
Western Athletic Conference.
“It’s good they’re in the conference,”
UCLA head coach Tom Fitzgerald said.
“We can’t get an automatic bid (into the NCAA
tournament) unless we have six teams in the conference, and they
make the sixth team.”
Fresno State (3-4-3) comes into the match against No. 6 UCLA
(5-1-2) having tied its last match against Sacramento State. The
Bruins come off of a weekend in which they tied matches against two
ranked teams, including No. 1 St. Johns.
“We’re still gathering information about Fresno
State, talking to people who’ve played them because we
haven’t seen them play yet,” Fitzgerald said.
“The games we played last weekend can only help us not only
in the Fresno State game but every game after now.”
Freshman goalkeeper Nate Pena has a different view on Fresno
State.
“I feel confident that we’ll beat them. We’ll
kill that team.”
At least one other Bruin is looking forward to playing Fresno
State. Junior midfielder Adolfo Gregorio will play his younger
brother, Andrew, a freshman forward for the Bulldogs. Adolfo
currently has more goals than Andrew, outscoring him three to
two.
The last time the two teams met was 1998 in the first round of
the NCAA tournament, which UCLA won 2-1.