Last season, the victories came by constantly and consistently for the UCLA women’s soccer team. Nearly each and every weekend, by default, belonged to the Bruins.
This season, the wins have been garnered only in spurts, with every start of a winning streak disrupted by one of the five losses sprinkled among the 15 matches played so far.
The latest defeat came in Corvallis, Ore. on Sunday, when some costly blunders from the Bruins dealt them a 3-0 loss to Oregon State.
“All of (the Beavers’) goals came from our mistakes,” junior defender Amelia Mathis said. “They did work hard and stick to their game plan, but at the end of the day, we did kind of hand it to them.”
Considering the change in personnel from last year to this year, the losses aren’t entirely unexpected.
A revamped roster lost three of its four starting defenders from 2009, as well as First-Team All-American senior forward Lauren Cheney.
But the No. 20 Bruins (9-5-1, 2-2 Pac-10) aren’t the only ones to have undergone a significant makeover this season. In fact, the power structure of college soccer on the West Coast has itself been altered.
In addition to newly minted No. 19 Oregon State (11-1-1, 3-0), other previously lesser-known programs such as No. 15 UC Irvine (13-1-2) and No. 24 Denver (14-2-0) ““ a team the Bruins beat 4-2 Sept. 17 ““ have impressed as of late, changing the dynamics of a region traditionally dominated by Stanford, Portland and UCLA.
But according to coach Jillian Ellis, this bodes well for the Bruins.
“I think it only helps us when other schools on the West Coast do well because it shows how strong our conference and our region are,” Ellis said. “You don’t want your local teams to not do well. I always feel every year that the West Coast is underrepresented in the postseason, so this is a good thing for the parity of the region and the parity of the conference.”
The Beavers certainly displayed their prowess last weekend, capitalizing on the error-prone Bruins to pull off the upset. But much like her coach, junior midfielder Charney Burk, who transferred from Portland this year, welcomes the increasing parity in West Coast soccer.
“I’m excited that more teams are getting more recognition,” Burk said. “Having better competition doesn’t make us any less. It challenges us and will make us a better team overall.”
But regardless of how well other teams have fared, the core issue for the time being remains in-house.
“Right now, we’ve certainly got to focus on ourselves,” Ellis said. “What we can control is how hard we work, what we’re willing to sacrifice and how much we’re willing to suffer. We have to find that whatever-it-takes mentality and always believe that we can control the outcome of the game.”
Put a ring on it
After having been invited to training camp with the full U.S. Women’s National Team earlier this season, junior forward Sydney Leroux has hit another personal milestone moment.
Leroux was engaged last week, reason enough for her teammates to celebrate the occasion.
“It was awesome,” Burk said. “We had a little engagement party for her, and they just seemed really happy and good for each other, so we were all very excited about that.”