Men's Team of the Year: Soccer eager to prove skills again in season-opening rematch against Louisville
To read about the women’s team of the year, please visit:
Women's Team of the Year: Golf builds on trust, friendship for solid season and NCAA Championship
This article is part of the Daily Bruin’s Graduation Issue 2011 coverage. To view the entire package of articles, columns and multimedia, please visit:
By Daniel Khayat
June 5, 2011 10:29 p.m.
Not too many people were expecting great things from UCLA’s men’s soccer team at the start of the season.
A big and important outgoing senior class and the subsequent lack of leadership that followed led most to believe that it would take coach Jorge Salcedo’s team a little while to find its rhythm in the fast-paced world of collegiate soccer.
But, to the surprise of all the doubters and naysayers, the Bruins finished the regular season at 16-5-1 and would have advanced to the national College Cup semifinals in Santa Barbara if not for a heartbreaking 5-4 defeat at Louisville in the quarterfinals.
“Everyone thought it would be a rebuilding year for us, having 10 freshmen come in and five starting each game,” freshman midfielder Kelyn Rowe said. “We kind of just proved everyone wrong.”
“There’s no such thing as a rebuilding year when you’re at a school like UCLA,” junior midfielder and team captain Andy Rose said. “You need to perform at the highest capacity, and I think the old guys and the young guys did a really good job of making sure of that.”
With only two graduating seniors on the roster ““ reserve goalkeepers Trevor Hunter and Kevin Weiner ““ Salcedo relied on his young guns to bring it every game, and they delivered on a consistent basis.
“The freshman class was awesome,” Chavez said. “The chemistry was great. That bond helped off the field, and it helped with the team being unified as well.”
The non-freshmen performed equally well.
Rose anchored the midfield and supplied his more offensive-oriented teammates with precise passes. Junior winger Eder Arreola had his most consistently productive season and sent the Bruins to the quarterfinals with a goal against Dartmouth with eight seconds remaining in double overtime. Brian Rowe was a stalwart in goal, allowing an average of just 1.06 goals per game.
But all the players can think about is the one that got away.
The 5-4 loss took its toll on the young Bruins, and with a season-opening rematch against the Louisville Cardinals on the horizon, Salcedo’s players are looking to redeem themselves.
“Looking back on it, it was a complete emotional roller coaster,” Rose said. “It’s a tough thing when you lose at that stage. Going up two-nil and going up three-one, you think you’re cruising, but you can never take your foot off the pedal at all, especially away.”
It was a back-and-forth match, and though the Bruins took a 3-1 lead into halftime, they fell behind 4-3 in the second thanks to a quick trifecta of goals by Louisville’s potent attack.
Chavez leveled the match at 4-4 in the 81st minute, but the Cardinals went ahead once and for all with less than a minute to go, dashing UCLA’s hopes of an elusive national championship.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Bruins, though. Unlike last season, which saw five players taken in the MLS SuperDraft, the most of any college, no player who saw significant playing time last season is leaving the team, so a lack of continuity or senior leadership is not a problem whatsoever.
“I think we can make a big improvement,” Rowe said. “The freshmen now know what to do in big situations. We have guys coming in that are maybe a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, a little bit better on the ball, so we can definitely make a run for the title.”
