UCLA women’s soccer hopes to reach new heights in this weekend’s games
Goalkeeper Katelyn Rowland helped bolster UCLA’s defense, which has averaged fewer goals allowed than any other in the country.
By Aubrey Yeo
Oct. 25, 2013 12:09 a.m.
The UCLA women’s soccer team will trade palm trees and Southern Californian weather for the Rocky Mountains and thin air for this weekend’s competitions.
With only a handful of games left in the regular season, the Bruins will cross over to the Mountain Time Zone to take on two of their remaining Pac-12 opponents, facing the Utah Utes on Friday before squaring off against the Colorado Buffaloes on Sunday.
The time difference will not be the only adjustment that the team will need to make. The elevations of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boulder, Colo. are respectively approximately 4000 and 5000 feet higher than that of Los Angeles, making altitude another mountain to climb as No. 2 UCLA (13-1-1, 5-0-1 Pac-12) takes on Utah (7-3-5, 3-2-1) and Colorado (11-3-1, 3-2-1).
But UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell says that this is a situation where having a squad of 33 players might pay dividends.
“I think it’s fun to go to new climates and regions of the country. The game’s in the afternoon so weather-wise, it’d be nice; not too cold,” Cromwell said. “Altitude, you know, it is what it is, so you’ve got to deal with it. We’re a deep team, so hopefully that’ll help us and be something that works in our favor.”
UCLA enters this weekend’s games as the No. 1 defense in the country with an average of 0.325 goals conceded per game. The Bruins have also been dominating their opponents in terms of possession, making sure most of the chances taken in games fall on the Bruins’ feet.
Despite that, Cromwell said she still sees areas in the Bruins’ possession game that need improvement, and freshman midfielder Annie Alvarado said the team has been working on them during this week’s practices.
“We’ve been working on possession because teams tend to sit in on us. So we’ve been working on possession and how to get out of it and different ways to exploit their defenses,” Alvarado said.
Junior midfielder Sarah Killion said that she and her teammates have brought the best out of one another in this week’s practices as they get ready to prove they’re worth their salt as the top team in the Pac-12 standings against their conference opponents.
“We’re always playing competitive games (in practice),” Killion said. “Today it got really competitive, but it’s good; we’re playing against great competition in practice against each other and it’s making us come out even stronger in games.”
