COLLEGE STATION, Texas “”mdash; As fireworks lit up the night sky on Friday, members of the UCLA women’s soccer team stood on the field.
Some stood by themselves, others embraced one another, but none of them watched the spectacle of lights as the looks of shock, sadness and dejection on their faces told the story of the night.
The Bruins had just suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of USC in the College Cup, falling short of a national title for the fifth consecutive year, having been taken out of contention in the semifinals by the Trojans.
“People always tell us we deserve it, but today we didn’t come out and earn it,” senior forward Danesha Adams said. “I felt like as a team we did what needed to be done throughout the season, but at the end of the day we just couldn’t get it done.”
UCLA opened up the match by dominating USC in every facet of the game, outshooting and out-possessing the Trojans. However they were only able to capitalize on one scoring chance, when sophomore forward Lauren Cheney maneuvered her way through four USC defenders before blasting a shot past goalkeeper Kristin Olsen.
That would be the only ball that Olsen let pass, as the sophomore made several spectacular saves that seemed to be sure goals, and likely would have been against most other teams.
“She got to some balls that we thought maybe were headed for the back of the net,” said UCLA coach Jill Ellis, who has coached Olsen on the national team. “She had a tremendous game.”
After taking a 1-0 lead into halftime, the Bruins still seemed as though they were in the driver’s seat, getting ready to face off against Florida State for the championship match.
However, Trojan forward Amy Rodriguez had plans of her own.
The junior was able to score two goals within a six-minute period during the second half, and the Bruins were never able to muster up an equalizing goal in the final 15 minutes of play, despite several opportunities to do so.
“We came out of halftime thinking we had it and we let down and let them back into the game,” senior goalkeeper Valerie Henderson said. “We didn’t get a sense of urgency until it was too late.”
“We didn’t have the competitive attitude today in the second half,” Adams said. “We didn’t do anything different like we have in the past couple of games.”
After opening off the season with a loss to Texas on the road, UCLA had gone unbeaten and knocked off some the nation’s top teams, including USC by a score of 2-0, but anything and everything they had accomplished in that stretch seemingly was forgotten on Friday night.
None of their wins during the season seemed to matter to the team anymore, as they judged themselves on their postseason performance and the shocking loss to a team that hadn’t been able to make it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament until this season’s miraculous run.
“We had a good year, but for us and our program, it’s trying to get championships,” Ellis said. “That’s the big thing.”
As was the case in their four previous trips to the College Cup, the Bruins returned home empty-handed. The Trojans, meanwhile, took home a NCAA Championship in their first trip to the College Cup, defeating Florida State on Sunday 2-0.
“People always say experience this and experience that, but that team’s not experienced,” Adams said of the Trojans. “They came in here not knowing what to expect.”
But the fact that their loss came at the hands of their less-experienced crosstown rivals was just an added slap in the face to the Bruins. The main sting comes from the loss itself, and the fact that for the fifth year in a row, they’re going home empty-handed.
“We had plenty of opportunities, but we didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Adams said. “We outshot them and we outplayed them.
“It sucks to go out my senior year like this. It wasn’t our day. It wasn’t our year.”