Last season, junior Bristyn Davis led the UCLA women’s
soccer team with 14 goals. This season, she won’t be expected
to score once. But that doesn’t mean that the expectations of
Davis have diminished. It simply means that the former forward has
found a new home at the right back position in the Bruin defense.
“It’s a defensive mentality, and I’ve never had
to do that before,” said Davis, who has played forward her
entire life. “It’s a lot different, but it’s a
good part of my game that I’ve needed help with.” A
move that was discussed last spring became a reality this fall,
when a Bruin injury in the team’s win over Santa Clara
prompted UCLA coach Jill Ellis to insert Davis into the game as a
defender. “With her pace, her ability to get forward, her
crossing ability, it just seemed like a natural evolution,”
Ellis said. Now the right back position may be a permanent home for
Davis, at least for the rest of this season. The Bruins’
roster boasts many attacking personalities, with Kara Lang, Iris
Mora and Danesha Adams shouldering the bulk of the scoring load
this season. Ellis said that Davis could move to an outside
midfielder position next season, but the Bruin coach feels like
Davis’ soccer future is probably the brightest in defense.
“For the national teams, Bristyn will probably get more of a
look as an outside back than she will as a forward,” Ellis
said. For now, however, the focus is on the team’s next game
against USC, and doing whatever it takes to help the team win.
Ellis said Davis’ willingness to play wherever she is needed
is a truly special quality. “I’ve never played defender
before, so it’s fun to try something new,” Davis
said.
SKY’S THE LIMIT: Forward Danesha Adams has been nothing
short of spectacular for the Bruins this season, scoring 10 goals
in 11 matches, including at least one goal per game in five
straight matches. And though the Bruin sophomore’s talent was
clearly evident last season when she scored 12 goals, she has
continued to develop the mental side of the game in order to become
a more complete player. “Last year I rode Danesha pretty
hard, because I saw that potential,” Ellis said. “I saw
that the sky was the limit for her.” In the Bruins’
last match, a 2-1 win over Pepperdine, Adams had something of a
nightmare in the first half before responding with two goals in the
second half to give her team the victory. Rather than taking
herself out of the game mentally, she stayed with it.That may not
have happened last season. “I’ve grown a lot,”
Adams said. “If it wasn’t for a lot of these players or
my coach, I don’t know where I’d be.
“They’ve just guided me in the right direction, and
I’m going to keep escalating from here.”
TROJANS ON DECK: No. 4 UCLA (10-1) begins conference play Friday
when cross-town rival USC visits Drake Stadium at 7 p.m.