CARY, N.C. “”mdash; All that Lindsay Greco could think about was
how close she had come as she unlaced her cleats and peeled off her
socks for the final time in her UCLA career.
Twice before, Greco had been a part of a Bruin team that
advanced to the College Cup. But never had the fifth-year senior
come so tantalizingly close to winning a championship as she did on
Sunday afternoon.
UCLA pushed fourth-seeded Notre Dame to its limit in the NCAA
women’s soccer championship match at SAS Soccer Park, falling
4-3 in penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie in regulation.
“This is a lot harder than the other ones because we were
right there,” Greco said. “We were playing well. We had
the momentum. If we had a few more minutes, maybe we would have
found a way to get another goal.”
Instead it came down to Greco, who needed to convert her penalty
kick, the last in the sixth round, to prolong the tension and keep
UCLA’s championship hopes alive.
As Greco stood over the ball, many of her teammates
couldn’t bear to watch. Junior Crystal James stared at the
ground, freshman Danesha Adams covered her eyes and senior Kendal
Billingsley clutched her head in her hands. That anxiety soon
turned to despair when Notre Dame goalkeeper Erika Bohn dove to her
left to block Greco’s shot, squelching UCLA’s
championship hopes for another year.
“It’s tough to swallow because we came so
close,” midfielder Jill Oakes said. “But I’ll
look back at this game really positively because I’m so proud
of how hard we fought to the end.”
Losing on penalty kicks was particularly galling for the Bruins
(18-7) because they attempted them at the end of each practice.
UCLA coach Jill Ellis said she set her lineup based on how the
players performed in practice, settling on Oakes and Adams to take
the fourth and fifth penalty kicks and Greco to take the first one
in sudden death.
“We keep track of the players that are most
consistent,” Ellis said. “Then at a certain point you
ask them if they want to take one to make sure their nerves
haven’t gotten the best of them.”
UCLA, which advanced to the championship game with a 2-0 victory
over Princeton on Friday afternoon, actually had a chance to avoid
penalty kicks altogether thanks to an own goal by Notre Dame
defender Gudrun Gunnarsdottir in the 60th minute. Gunnarsdottir
sent a pass back to Bohn, who had come off her line to play the
ball and wasn’t expecting it. The pass glanced off
Bohn’s foot and trickled into the net for the game’s
first goal.
But the Bruins’ lead proved to be short lived. Notre Dame
forward Katie Thorlakson, who was voted the most outstanding player
in the College Cup, drew a penalty just inside the box on UCLA
defender Mary Castelanelli in the 73rd minute and put away the
penalty kick to knot the game at 1-1.
The Bruins had a chance to score the go-ahead goal with less
than five minutes remaining in regulation, but Bohn stymied
Billingsley on a penalty kick, diving far to her right to punch the
ball over the cross bar.
“That was kind of the game right there,” Ellis said.
“You get those chances, and you’ve got to put them
away.”
But instead of getting discouraged, the Bruins continued their
onslaught, outplaying Notre Dame (25-1-1) the rest of regulation
and in both overtime periods. UCLA, which tied the Fighting Irish
with 11 shots, registered five in the game’s final 25
minutes, including a Billingsley header that was saved off the goal
line by Notre Dame’s Candace Chapman.
Forwards Adams, Iris Mora and Bristyn Davis each had scoring
chances late in the game for the Bruins, who previously had
outscored their opponents 9-0 in NCAA Tournament play.
Once the game went to penalty kicks, however, UCLA lost that
advantage.
When it came time for Greco to take her shot, the senior said
she second-guessed herself a little bit about which way to go, and
that proved to be her undoing.
“Afterwards all I could think about was woulda, coulda,
shoulda,” she said. “I knew that I had the chance to
come up big, and I didn’t get it done.”
Though the Bruins lamented missing another opportunity to
capture the program’s first national championship, the
team’s mood after the game was one of pride, not
resentment.
“Today the game was sort of in the hands of fate,”
Oakes said. “That’s the way it is with PKs at the end
of the game. But somebody had to walk out of here with the trophy.
We’re upset, but I’m proud of what we accomplished this
year. We played our hearts out today.”