Even though the schedule says the season is young and only five official games are in the books, the No. 6 UCLA women’s soccer team (3-1-1) has already played through a season’s worth of emotions and scenarios.
They have experienced the joy of dominating home wins over Illinois and San Francisco. They have felt the pain of a heart-wrenching road loss to Texas. Their mental and physical toughness has been put to the test in a nail-biting 0-0, double-overtime tie at San Diego. They have shown the ability to regroup after a tough performance with a strong 3-1 road victory at Cal State Northridge.
And for good measure, they have even gone through the disappointment of a game being suspended, in which the Bruins had built a 4-0 advantage over Houston.
But it’s still early and there are many games to be played and emotions to be experienced. And while the season has only just begun, both players and coaches are smiling from ear to ear about the potential that this team has.
“It’s definitely really early, but it’s going to be a great season ahead of us,” senior forward Danesha Adams said. “It’s a bright future for us. We have so many great talented players and have brought in a lot of freshmen that are going to be able to contribute to our team.
“It’s kind of early to say now what we are really going to do but we are just hoping that it’s going to be a bright future for us.”
If the five games the Bruins have played so far this season are any indication, they have quite a future ahead of them. Coming into this year, the Bruins boasted the number one recruiting class in the nation, and many of those recruits have made key contributions already this year.
The No. 2 recruit in the country, defender Lauren Barnes, is the Bruins’ starting left back and has been a solid force at the position, starting all five games so far this season. Barnes is enjoying the college atmosphere and the level of competition.
“I love it so far,” Barnes said. “It’s been really exciting and tough, but I love it.”
Along with Barnes, freshmen Kylie Wright, Sarah Salazar, and Dana Wall have each seen significant playing time for the Bruins this season.
While the freshmen have been making key contributions, it is the older and more experienced Bruins that have paced the team so far.
Adams, a pre-season All-American and M.A.C. Hermann Trophy candidate, has tallied five goals in five games and was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 2-9. With her five goals, Adams has moved up to second all-time on the UCLA scoring charts with 112 points. She still trails Traci Arkenberg, who tallied 169 points from 1994-1997.
Sophomore star and fellow pre-season M.A.C. Hermann Trophy candidate Lauren Cheney is continuing where she left off last year and has had a strong string of games to start off the year. So far this season, Cheney has netted three goals and two assists, although she had two goals in the shortened game against Houston. Since the game was suspended, those statistics do not count in season totals.
While the Bruins have played well, coach Jill Ellis believes that there are still some kinks to be worked out.
“We definitely have things to work on and improve upon,” Ellis said. “I just think our decisionmaking on the ball and some of the things we are doing on the field, we need to make better decisions with the ball. We are giving the ball up too easily and making mental mistakes, which is not unusual for this early in the season, but I expect a lot from my team and expect that to be part of what we try and eliminate.
“Eliminate mistakes and we don’t give teams good scoring opportunities. I don’t feel that teams have created great scoring opportunities. I feel like at times we have given them great scoring opportunities.”
While the Bruins need to improve upon the decisions they make with the ball and not giving the opposition easy scoring opportunities, Ellis has seen many positives.
“We have done well,” Ellis said. “We have come out and have freshmen starting and freshmen contributing. We have scored some nice goals thus far. So those are some positives, but it is still early.”
A key to the team’s early success has been the chemistry between the players. When asked about their team, coaches and players alike stressed the great composition of the team.
“We have great personalities on this team,” Ellis said.
“I think that we have amazing players,” Barnes said. “I think that we are going to do great. We have great chemistry. Anything good is going to be coming.”
The Bruins officially began their season against No. 7 Texas, yet were unable to produce a winning performance. Cheney put the Bruins ahead in the 14th minute with a header, yet Texas came back in the second half to win 2-1.
Adams was adamant that the shortened game two days earlier against Houston did not affect their play against Texas.
“Maybe if we were able to play the whole game, we could have gotten some of the jitters out of a lot of us,” Adams said. “We hadn’t played as a team together in a real game. So that game being cut short and also it being a 4-0 game that early doesn’t quite prepare us for a good team. But that has to do with us having to come prepared for every game and as a team, we just didn’t come prepared for the Texas game. I don’t think we were mentally prepared to play so it took the best of us.”
Ellis echoed the sentiments of her star forward.
“I think psychologically we were not prepared to face Texas,” Ellis said. “(We) have confidence but (we) also have to understand that teams are not going to roll over on us. We have to have more of a mental edge and more of a capacity to hunt teams down.”
Eager to erase the memory of the loss to Texas, the Bruins bounced back with two strong wins at home in the UCLA Women’s Cup, 4-2 over Illinois on Sept. 7, and 3-0 over San Francisco on Sept. 9. The two wins pushed the Bruins unbeaten streak at Drake Field to 29 games. Needless to say, the team was excited to get back on track with two home wins.
“It was good for us,” junior Christina DiMartino said. “We started out pretty slow, losing our first game. I think the (wins) just got our confidence back and we still have more left in us to play. It’s just a good start for us.”
On Sept. 14, the Bruins traveled down the freeway to face San Diego and battled to a 0-0 tie that lasted through two overtime periods. The shutout was senior goalkeeper Valerie Henderson’s record-setting 32nd blank sheet, passing Lindsay Culp on the UCLA all-time list.
The Bruins showed determination to bounce back in their game two days later against Cal State Northridge, defeating the Matadors 3-1. Cheney displayed how vital she is to the Bruins’ success, playing a role in all three of the goals.
So, while the 3-1-1 record might seem a bit disappointing considering the high expectations of the program this year, the season is still young, and the Bruins have the pieces needed to make a strong run in the NCAA Championships in November.
“We have amazing players,” DiMartino said. “I think the only way to keep going is up. We have the potential. We aren’t quite there yet but it’s still early and I think we will be great.”