It’s that time of year again. The time when the days grow cold and short, when breaths become visible in the crisp night air, and when the No. 1 UCLA women’s soccer team (7-1-2) begins another run for Pac-10 title glory.
For the past four years, the Bruins have been the toast of the conference, winning the title each season.
This weekend, when the Bruins host Oregon State (7-3-1) today and Oregon (7-4) Sunday, the quest for conference title number five begins.
“It’s a great feeling (to start conference play),” senior forward Danesha Adams said. “We’ve won it four years in a row. Now its time for us to regain our title again.”
However, according to acting head coach B.J. Snow, who is filling in for coach Jill Ellis while she is on a scouting trip in China, the number five is not the number on the Bruins’ minds.
“We don’t look at it as five Pac-10 championships,” Snow said. “We look at it as one championship, and that is this year’s title.”
The Bruins have been on an absolute tear as of late, outscoring their opponents 17-3 in their past four games. When asked how they have been able to seemingly score at will, junior midfielder Christina DiMartino pointed to the fact that the team is clicking and the level of confidence is high.
“I just think that we are finding the net well right now,” DiMartino said. “(Lauren) Cheney and Kara (Lang) are really helping out right now moving the ball. The subs are coming in and helping out. Right now, everyone is just really confident.”
The team must now look ahead to the most important part of the regular season: Pac-10 play. If the Bruins wish to advance to the NCAA College Cup for the fifth consecutive year, they have to start the season off on the right foot. That would mean a victory over Oregon State, a team that the Bruins have beaten in 10 of the two teams’ past 12 games, including five times consecutively.
Like every week, players and coaches expressed the mind-set of focusing on their own game and the game at hand.
“Every team in the Pac-10 is competitive and tough,” Snow said. “Oregon State is a competitive team. They have players who can do some damage up top. But we just need to concentrate on ourselves.”
The marquee matchup of the weekend will be on Sunday, when the Oregon Ducks come to Drake Stadium. The game is important for the Bruins, as they will be looking to avenge their 2-1 double-overtime loss to the Ducks in Eugene last year, UCLA’s only loss in the Pac-10 season.
“Anytime you lose to a team you definitely want to come back and fix that situation,” Adams said. “And that situation right there is going to be that we need to come back and win, win this game and start the Pac-10 off well (at) 2-0.”
For the first time in the history of the program, the team is No. 1 in the national poll. DiMartino said that the ranking only gives other teams more incentive and motivation to upend the Bruins.
“That just means that the target on our backs is even bigger,” DiMartino said. “So, while we are happy, it just makes our job that much more difficult. We just need to play our game.”
For now, the focus of the Bruins is not on Pac-10 championships or College Cup aspirations; their focus is on this weekend.
“We just have to focus on ourselves and take it one game at a time,” Snow said. “Playing two teams in a weekend can be difficult. But we are focusing on Oregon State now and we will focus on Oregon on Saturday. If we took any other way, we would do ourselves an injustice.”