After being shockingly eliminated from postseason play by Loyola Marymount on Saturday, the UCLA softball team’s senior class has truly been through it all.
It was a very accomplished class in which seven of the eight members (senior second baseman Celina Rubalcaba transferred to UCLA last season) won a national title in their freshman seasons in 2004 and fell just short of repeating the feat the next two seasons.
The Bruins had lost eight Pac-10 games in 2004, but the freshman class played a big role in the team’s postseason success. Current seniors Lisa Dodd and Jodie Legaspi made the Women’s College World Series All-Tournament team as freshmen while another current senior, Kristen Dedmon, broke a tie in the championship game against California with a two-run single.
In the seniors’ sophomore year in 2005, the Bruins struggled mightily throughout the season, but staved off near-elimination in Regional play and ended up making it all the way back to the national title game, where they lost to Michigan in 10 innings.
Last season, UCLA breezed through the regular season, won its first Pac-10 title since 2002, and earned the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. UCLA easily made it back to the World Series, but lost in the semifinals to Northwestern.
Then came this season, when the seniors had to make a surprising adjustment to a new coaching staff when 18-year coach Sue Enquist announced her retirement. The Bruins started off slow, but finished Pac-10 play looking very strong. But for the first time in their experience with the program, the seniors could not make it back to the World Series and were eliminated in Regional play.
The loss to Loyola Marymount was particularly emotional not only because it fell short of the team’s goals, but because it was something that none of the eight seniors on the team had experienced before. Dodd could hardly hold back tears as she reflected on her experience in the program after her final game in a Bruin uniform.
“I personally learned so much from the players that weren’t starters every day, the role players,” Dodd said. “Everyone just doing their part ““ it’s a team, not individuals. It’s about the team.”
With such a mixture of successes, failures, new people to adjust to and a variety of will-testing scenarios, the senior class has attained a wealth of experience in its four years with the program.
“Learning to work with different personalities, being able to be flexible, being able to be patient ““ all these things that are life lessons that when we go out into the real world, are huge things that I will have in my own basket and be able to take with me regardless of if I’m playing softball or not,” Legaspi said.
Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez also fought tears in talking about the seniors and the season after the game, but was able to take some solace in the fact that all eight seniors ended up seeing the field and contributed to a near-successful last-ditch effort to get back into the game.
Dedmon, despite seeing decreased playing time the last two seasons, has accumulated a plethora of clutch hits in the past four years. She came up with yet another one to put runners on first and third with one out in the seventh inning and give the Bruins a chance to win the game. Then, senior Tara Henry loaded the bases with a bunt single, but the next two Bruins grounded out to end the game.
“I walk away from the field knowing that they had some great moments out there as seniors,” Inouye-Perez said. “Kristen Dedmon coming up, getting a key hit; Tara Henry coming up, taking care of business; having (senior utility player Shana Stewart) go out there ““ to be able to leave it in my seniors’ hands gives me great joy knowing that they left it on the field and did everything they could to fight back.”
THREE PAC-10 TEAMS ADVANCE: All eight Pac-10 teams made it to the NCAA Championships, but only three of the teams remain in Super Regionals. Top-seeded Arizona, 6th-seeded Washington and 7th-seeded Arizona State all advanced, but UCLA, California, Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford were all eliminated.
Stanford, Oregon and Oregon State were eliminated on the final day of Regional play while UCLA and Cal did not reach the final day.
Arizona hosts Cal State Fullerton in the best-of-three series in a quest to earn a ticket to the Women’s College World Series this weekend. Meanwhile, Arizona State will host 10th-seeded LSU while Washington hosts 11th-seeded Alabama.