Eleven games into the season, and the UCLA women’s soccer team has emerged with a jumble of impressive wins and disappointing losses to show for the non-conference portion of its journey.
For every victory like the 2-1 overtime upset over then-No. 3 Notre Dame on Sept. 10, there was a dousing loss to accompany it, the latest one coming in the form of a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Pepperdine on Friday.
But considering the makeup of the team, such mixed results weren’t entirely unexpected.
“The non-conference part of the season has, for all intent and purposes, served its purpose,” coach Jillian Ellis said. “At this point, we’re right about where I expected us to be. With so many new players contributing, it’s always a growing process. There has definitely been a rapid learning curve, but I think that the players recognize at this point the potential of this team.”
As it stands, potential, as well as a determined outlook, are the driving forces behind a UCLA team aiming for a winning segue into Pac-10 play. That would then entail having a relatively short memory.
“It’s all about looking forward from here on out,” senior midfielder Kylie Wright said. “We definitely learned some things from our loss (to Pepperdine), but now we’re just looking forward to Pac-10 play.”
But if the Bruins plan on braving the storm that is a pair of weekend dates against No. 16 Cal and No. 1 Stanford, they’ll have to capitalize on their scoring opportunities, not that there has been a shortage in shot attempts. UCLA currently averages just over 17 shots per game, on par with a 2009 team that advanced all the way to the seminfinals of the Women’s College Cup.
“We’ve had so many new people in the back(line) that it was a bit scary at first, but we’ve worked that out pretty well, and team defending has been good,” senior defender Lauren Barnes said.
“Offensively, we’ve had a lot (of scoring opportunities), so we just need to finish on those chances.”
Milestone streak snapped
Sunday’s loss to Pepperdine marked the end of a 73-match unbeaten home streak, the longest in the country. UCLA had not lost at Drake Stadium since a 2-1 double-overtime loss to Penn State on Sept. 5, 2005.
“As a team, we never brought it up, but we had it in our heads,” Barnes said of the broken streak. “Last year’s seniors went four years without losing at Drake, and it would’ve been cool to do that again. It’s in the past now, but it hit some of us.”