The Long Beach Marriott Invitational will have UCLA softball splitting time between playing five other teams and taking care of finals and papers
By Min Kang
March 10, 2011 2:37 p.m.
It’s that time of the quarter again.
When the UCLA softball team packs up for its next series of games this weekend, the inventory will include books, laptops and highlighters, in addition to the usual bats, cleats and road uniforms.
Not that the players will be engaging in voluntary book clubs anytime soon ““ far from it.
“It’s tournament season, and your mind is on softball; you don’t want to go home later and study,” senior second baseman GiOnna DiSalvatore said. “You want to be thinking about the games; you’re in game mode.”
That rather unattractive chore of studying, of course, comes as a given at a time when blue books and Scantrons are waiting to be purchased, the end-of-the-quarter exams and papers for all UCLA students inescapable.
With conference play still about a month away, the No. 9 Bruins (16-4) will be on the road yet again, taking the short trip to Lakewood for the Long Beach Marriott Invitational, held Friday through Sunday.
And while the schedule pits UCLA against Sacramento State (2-7) followed by Long Beach State (13-6) on Friday, Cal State Fullerton (6-10) and then Brigham Young (8-12) on Saturday and Saint Mary’s (3-2) on Sunday, the one intangible opponent ““ final exams ““ will be lurking throughout the next two weeks.
“When we’re on the road, coach (Kelly Inouye-Perez) puts aside as much time as she can for us for study-hall hours,” said DiSalvatore, a sociology student. “We do have people who are in mandatory study hall, and it’s three hours every Sunday. … And then for the rest of us, (Inouye-Perez) makes us do a couple of hours here and there; the rest of the week, it’s on us when we want to study.”
But as daunting as the task of balancing a five-game weekend with exam preparation may be, some good does come of it. In other words, there’s little choice left but to skip the procrastination stages of study sessions.
“I’m trying to do all of my final papers and start them now because I’m not going to have time to work on them while we’re playing games,” said junior left fielder Andrea Harrison, a history student who has two papers and a project all due on Wednesday. “It’s pretty crazy, but we all, since our freshmen year, have figured out how to time manage.”
As for the challenge that awaits the Bruins on the field, familiarity will be the recurring theme this weekend. UCLA has faced Cal State Fullerton the past 10 seasons and has defeated BYU once already this year, at last week’s Campbell/Cartier Classic. As far as their last opponent of the weekend is concerned, the Bruins soundly beat the Saint Mary’s Gaels last season in NCAA Regional play, 11-4.
“You always get to learn a little bit about each opponent as you play them,” Inouye-Perez said. “Strategy comes into play a little more as you get familiar with your opponent, but for us, the best part about our game is no matter how much you know about the opponent, it’s always a new game. Different people will step into different opportunities, so we expect a completely new game.”
With reports from Manny Redruello, Bruin Sports contributor.
