Soccer preps for the next step

Soccer preps for the next step

Bruins anticipating

quarterfinal match

against Charleston

By Tim Costner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In this weekend’s NCAA quarter-final match, the UCLA men’s
soccer team will host a squad that has flirted with elimination
even more than the Bruins have.

The College of Charleston has won both of its playoff games in
sudden death overtime, first thwarting top-seeded UNC-Charlotte,
1-0, and then squeaking by North Carolina State, 5-4, the following
week.

"They’re winning and they’re beating teams that they lost to
earlier in the year," UCLA head coach Sigi Schmid said. "They’re
fit and if you look at their record, no one scores against them in
the overtime periods. They’ve got six seniors in starting roles, so
this is their last hurrah."

The Bruins, however, have out-scored their opponents 27-8 in the
second half and 5-0 in overtime. The quarter-final game is Sunday
at 1 p.m. on the North Soccer Field.

* * *

With his game-tying assist and game-winning goal against
Southern Methodist last Sunday, midfielder Greg Vanney became the
ninth player on the UCLA roster to tally at least 10 points this
season, which has not been historically uncommon for the
Bruins.

"If you look back, it’s pretty common for how we spread around
scoring," Schmid said. "Different people step up on different days,
and that’s what it shows. It means that it makes it tougher for us
to get shut out. We did get shut out three games in a row but
that’s behind us. We’re the leading scoring team in the playoffs,
and we’re happy about that."

* * *

Joe Christie has probably found the most difficult way to get to
double-digits in scoring. The right winger has assisted a
team-leading nine times this season but has just scored one goal,
giving him 11 points on the season.

"I think I just look more to getting assists now than to score,"
Christie said. "I’ll take my shots, but my coaches want me to stay
out so far to the right that I get into the position to shoot. But,
you know, I love my team ­ all I want to do is to give my
brothers love."

Christie’s latest token of brotherly love was on the Bruins’
first goal against SMU last weekend ­ an assist to Adam Frye
that gave UCLA a 1-0 lead.

* * *

It’s funny how things work out. In the West region, the final
two contenders are none other than Cal State Fullerton and No. 1
Indiana, two teams that played each other in UCLA’s adidas/MetLife
Classic about two months ago.

The Titans upstaged the Bruins that weekend by knocking the
Hoosiers out of the top spot before UCLA even had a chance to play
them.

So now the Hoosiers ­ who eventually regained their
position atop the rankings ­ get a rematch against the Titans.
But this time, the game will be held in Bloomington. What are the
chances that Indiana is going to lose to Fullerton again when the
game means a spot in the Final Four and the Hoosiers are the host?
Slim at best.

Then again, Fullerton winded up in the Final Four last year and
are pretty close to getting there again. Go figure.

* * *

With the Bruins’ late-in-the-game win vs. SMU, Schmid amassed
his 248th career victory last weekend, and has pushed his
post-season record to 20-10.

And last weekend’s win ranks among some of the best.

"It was definitely memorable," Schmid said. "There are few games
when you score three goals in eight minutes ­ maybe we’ve done
it in a game where it didn’t have the same impact. So being down
2-1 and coming back with three goals ranks up there with some of
the great wins we’ve had."

And what does winning his 250th game mean to him?

"I care about winning it this year because if I win 250 games,
it means we’re in the final," Schmid said. "But all it really means
is that I’ve coached for a long time, it means I’m getting older
and getting gray hair. All of those things. We’ve had a lot of
great players and have played pretty consistently ­ and we’ve
done it in a short period of time."