After losing its first game of the season, the UCLA women’s soccer team had a complete turnaround and finished the season with an impressive 16-1-2 record, while remaining in the No. 1 spot for the last several weeks.
However, on Monday night when the NCAA Championship draw was released, it appeared as though a perfect record in the Pac-10, a one-loss season, and the third-highest Rating Percentage Index wasn’t impressive enough for the NCAA.
“The first thing I said to the kids before the draw came out is that it’s irrelevant and you can’t ever figure it out or make sense of it, so at the end of the day, you have to focus on the game in front of you,” UCLA coach Jill Ellis said.
Instead of receiving the overall No. 1 seed, UCLA received the tournament’s second-highest No. 1 seed and was thrown into perhaps the toughest of the four regions.
Meanwhile, No. 4 North Carolina (17-3-1) was given the overall No. 1 seed and potentially has the easiest first two rounds, going against High Point (188th in the RPI rankings) in the first round and facing the winner of a matchup between Memphis and UNC Greensboro in the next game.
UCLA on the other hand will face Cal State Fullerton (65th in the RPI rankings) in the first round and will potentially meet No. 19 San Diego (11th in the RPI rankings) in the second round.
The Bruins would also have to take on No. 7 Virginia in the third round if the seeds play out. The Cavaliers came up just short of defeating the Tar Heels in the ACC Tournament, losing 4-2 in penalty kicks, showing that they are perhaps deserving of a higher seed than just a mere 4.
And if the draw couldn’t seem even more unfair from the Bruins’ perspective, No. 9 USC, who finished second in the Pac-10 and was handed a 2-0 defeat by UCLA, received a second seed and even then has an easier road to the third round, where they would play a team ranked lower than Virginia in No. 21 Florida.
Although the NCAA may have shown respect to the top three teams in the Pac-10 by giving UCLA and Stanford No. 1 seeds and USC a No. 2 seed, Washington State, a team that went 11-5-3 overall and 4-4-1 in arguably the best conference in the nation, wasn’t shown the same respect and wasn’t considered for the draw. Three of the Cougars’ losses came from UCLA, Stanford and California ““ two No. 1 seeds and another tournament team ““ and they ended the season with a 2-1 win over second-seeded USC.
“I’m extremely disappointed that the NCAA selection committee doesn’t afford the Pac-10 the strength that it has,” Ellis said.
“To only get four teams out of our conference into the playoffs I think is an oversight.
“That you’ve had three of the Pac-10 teams in the top five or six the entire year and to only get four teams in the tournament I think is pretty disappointing.”
However, Duke, a team that went 8-5-6 overall and 3-3-4 in the ACC while finishing in seventh place, losing to Clemson (2-3-5 ACC) and beating the likes of Virginia Tech (3-5-2 ACC) and North Carolina State (0-9-1 ACC) by one goal margins, was selected for the tournament.
All discrepancy aside, the Bruins are focused on their task at hand and are by no means underestimating their first opponent, Cal State Fullerton.
Though the two squads have not met this season, both teams won their respective conferences, the Titans doing so against Cal Poly in penalty kicks, winning 4-3.
For seniors Danesha Adams and Valerie Henderson, each game could be their last, and the two seasoned veterans are well aware of that.
“It could be my last time ever putting on a UCLA jersey again,” Adams said. “We have six games to get to where we want to be. We have to take it one game at a time.”
With home-field advantage in potentially the first four rounds of play through the quarterfinals, the Bruins will be looking to maintain an unbeaten streak at home of over two years, dating back to Sept. 9, 2005 when UCLA fell to Penn St. 1-0 in double overtime.
As each game could be the last of the season, Henderson and the Bruins have the right mind-set needed to be successful and keep the unbeaten streak at home alive.
“Every game from here on out is a championship game,” the senior goalkeeper said.
SUNDHAGE TO COACH U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM: On Tuesday, American officials named 47-year-old Swedish coach Pia Sundhage to head the U.S. women’s national team. UCLA coach Jill Ellis was one of the top candidates for the job.