On Greener Grass

  CLAIRE ZUGMEYER After two years at UC Irvine, Bruin
forward Stephanie Rigamat has found a home at
UCLA.

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Say what you want about L.A. She still loves it.

But it’s not the glamour or the glitz that UCLA forward
Stephanie Rigamat finds so appealing; it’s the people.

“You have friendlier people,” Rigamat said as she
sat in Westwood Plaza. “They hang out here and there are
bands and stuff.”

The current Pac-10 Player of the Week, a junior transfer from UC
Irvine, is enjoying her life as a Bruin after two years as an
Anteater.

“The people here are so much nicer,” Rigamat said.
“There’s a more athletic atmosphere and the team
caliber is better.”

But then again, she’s always known UCLA was the place for
her.

“I loved it when I came and visited,” said Rigamat,
who was also recruited by USC, Fresno State and Loyola Marymount.
“This is where I always wanted to be.”

Her dream was put on hold, however, when she wasn’t
heavily recruited to become a Bruin. She settled instead for a full
ride to Division I UCI.

What a mistake.

“I wasn’t happy,” Rigamat confessed.
“The coach and I had different opinions on how to play and on
the way he coached.

“The school just wasn’t for me socially,” she
added.

Even after earning First Team All-Big West honors as a freshman,
Rigamat wanted out.

She spent the following summer playing with the U-20 Shamrocks,
who went on to win their second consecutive national club
championship title.

Not only was it a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the summer gave
Rigamat a glimpse of what she was truly capable of.

“That was the best training that I had had,” Rigamat
said. “It helped me get out of Irvine by showing me that I
could play for a better team.”

But she chalked up her discontent simply to being a freshmen who
didn’t yet adjust to college life and returned to UCI for a
second season.

By December, Rigamat quit the team for good.

“I was just to the point where I was so unhappy I was
willing to go to a lower division in soccer or a JC because I was
miserable,” she said.

Hoping to play for her original first choice, Rigamat called
then-UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña. The next year she was in
Westwood.

But the transfer wasn’t a complete success. UCI head coach
Marine Cano withheld Rigamat’s release papers and officially
kept her from playing for UCLA.

“It was not a happy good-bye,” Rigamat said.
“I think he was upset because along with me, six others left
and there was a number of seniors that graduated.”

Finally at UCLA, Rigamat had to redshirt her first season as a
Bruin.

“I was upset because I’ve never been in a situation
where I couldn’t play,” she said. “I had no
choice. I had done all I could do.”

So Rigamat spent a year giving her all at practice with no
chance of ever setting foot on the pitch.

“It’s hard to be motivated when you’re not
playing,” current UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said.
“I respect her because she trained an entire year and never
got to play, never got to travel.”

She can look back on it now as a learning experience.

“I got to be a practice dummy for a year,” Rigamat
said with a smile. “But I worked hard everyday and I got to
watch my position so when I came in this year, I was ready to
contribute and do stuff up top.”

Once given the chance, Rigamat didn’t waste any time
making her mark.

In the record books, that is.

In UCLA’s game against University of San Diego on Sept.
24, Rigamat intercepted a pass back off a USD kickoff and tied for
the fifth fastest goal in NCAA history in a lightening-quick 11
seconds.

“I just watched the ball as it was being passed back and I
never took my eyes off it.”

After stripping it from a midfielder, Rigamat beat the last
defender and went one-on-one with the goalkeeper. In the blink of
an eye it was 1-0, UCLA.

“I wasn’t surprised,” teammate Karissa Hampton
said. “She strips balls (from the opposing defense) all the
time.”

Rigamat is equally unimpressed by her goal.

“I got a lucky break and took advantage of it,”
Rigamat said.

Don’t let her modesty fool you, Rigamat has been setting
records for awhile now.

At UCI, Rigamat was her team’s second leading scorer for
two years in a row. As a true freshman, she recorded nine goals and
seven assists, including the game-tying goal in the Big West
Championship game, which UCI went on to win. As a sophomore she
notched 13 goals and four assists. With only two seasons as an
Anteater, Rigamat holds the No. 5 spot in the UCI record books in
career assists.

“I have a knack for the goal I guess,” she said.
“I like the pressure of having to score, I think all forwards
have that.”

But none have it quite like her.

“He r quickness makes her a threat every time she has the
ball,” Ellis said. “She can take players on or run the
through ball. When she strikes, she’s explosive,
powerful.”

Rigamat’s success can’t be attributed to pure talent
alone, but to her dedication as well.

“She has the love of the game thriving in her and I admire
her for that,” Hampton said. “I feel like she’s
my hope on the field.”

With the NCAA tournament just around the corner, Rigamat and her
fellow Bruins have their eyes on a national title.

“It’s like she wants to win all the time,”
teammate Tracey Milburn said. “She wants to do it, not just
for herself, but for the team.”

These days Rigamat doesn’t ride the pine, she starts, and
has played in all 17 games this season. She doesn’t just work
hard in practice, she’s been working hard in games where she
has already scored eight goals and dished out seven assists.

For Rigamat, the bottom line is that the grass is greener on the
Westwood side.