W. soccer shooting for first NCAA playoff bid

W. soccer shooting for first NCAA playoff bid

Bruins need big wins against top teams as finish regular
season

By Hye Kwon

After two huge wins over San Diego State and Cal State Fullerton
last weekend, the UCLA women’s soccer team put themselves in
serious contention for an NCAA playoff bid.

The Bruins (10-3-2 overall) will try to become one of the top 24
teams in the country in order to attend the women’s soccer version
of the "Big Dance." The playoffs will feature the top four teams in
each of the regions, and six wild card slots.

However, the final three matches remaining for UCLA are,
arguably, the toughest matches of the season. First up for the
Bruins is No. 3 Stanford (12-1) which has beaten every team that
they played this year except for No. 1 North Carolina at the Texas
Adidas/Chevron Challenge earlier this month. They have showed their
firepower throughout the season, outscoring their opponents 35-8
while outshooting them 270-92.

"They will be really, really tough," defender Michelle Kaping
said. "But we have nothing to lose, while (Stanford) has everything
to lose."

After the Bruins conclude their five-game home stand against the
Cardinal, they will travel north to take on California and San
Francisco. The Golden Bears (3-8-4 overall) have struggled this
season, but they have shown that they can rise to the occasion
against tough opponents. They have not only taken Stanford to the
limit in their 1-0 loss, but the Golden Bears have also beaten UC
Irvine and Washington State, and tied UC Santa Barbara and San
Francisco. Those statistics alone make California a tough team for
UCLA, considering that the Bruins have struggled against those same
schools this year.

After their bearfight at Berkeley, UCLA will travel to San
Francisco to take on the Lady Dons. USF, which has an overall
record of 12-2-1, was one of the last two Division I-A schools
(Stanford being the other) in the nation to fall from the ranks of
the unbeaten and untied this season. The Lady Dons lost their first
game against No. 9 Santa Clara Oct. 12, and their other loss was to
a nationally ranked St. Mary’s team.

* * *

The Bruins now have the distinction of having the stingiest
defense in the west. They lead the western region in Goals Against
Average (GAA) with .588. A lot of that has to do with the strong
Bruin defense led by sweeper Sue Skenderian and fellow defender
Tiffany Brown, but goalie Gretchen Overgaard has to receive much of
the kudos. Overgaard is second in the western region in goals
scored against average with .429, behind Kris Young of Washington
State (.267).

However, that figure might not accurately point to the top
goalie in the region because Young has played in only seven matches
and a total of 675 minutes this season, while Overgaard has played
in 12 matches and more than 1,200 minutes.

Overgaard also has a current scoreless streak of 226 minutes,
and a season shutout total of eight games. She has yielded only six
goals, while making 80 saves for a 93 percent save percentage.

Nationally, she is ranked fourth in GAA behind the goalies from
North Carolina, Notre Dame and Young from Washington State, in that
order.

Another Bruin freshman that could be considered an All-American
candidate is forward Traci Arkenberg. In the San Diego State match,
Arkenberg scored the winning goal for the Bruins once again and
raised her total goals scored to 11. She is still on track to break
the UCLA all-time record for goals scored (13), and points (32),
both set by Sonja Munevar last season.

Arkenberg is currently ranked eighth in the region in scoring
with 26 points and seventh in the region with her 11 goals.

"Arkenberg is a great scorer," San Diego State head coach Chuck
Clegg said. "She has a nose for the ball."

Forward Michelle Lieberman is also playing well of late, with
five points in the last three matches.