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Women’s soccer ready to be tested, looks toward 2016 season

Junior MacKenzie Cerda has changed positions to help bolster the Bruins’ defense, something that should be strong once again after a weak showing last year. (Daily Bruin file photo)

By Michael Hull

Aug. 8, 2016 12:02 a.m.

What 2015 season?

With all head coach Amanda Cromwell and the UCLA women’s soccer team have done since last year’s more-than-disappointing end, it’s easy to forget that the program that won a national championship three years ago and followed up with a powerful 21-1-2 season descended into an 8-10-1 mire.

The coaching staff landed the top-ranked recruiting class of the year, consisting of United States’ U20, U19 and U18 age-group women’s national team members Marley Canales, Kaiya McCullough, Sunny Dunphy and Jacey Pederson, not to mention two U.S. and Canadian national team members who are both suiting up in Rio.

In the spring, the Bruins went 4-1-1, and then summer came. Five players on the current roster won the United Women’s Soccer championship with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat club team.

Now, it’s the onset of a new year, and a young and talented UCLA squad is led by a group of experienced seniors like midfielder Annie Alvarado, forward Darian Jenkins, defender/midfielder Gabbi Miranda and defender/forward Courtney Proctor.

“You can have some great players, you can be talented but if the team isn’t together as one it’s going to make for some trying times,” Cromwell said. “It’s their mission to make sure everyone feels like they are bought in to what they are trying to do, everyone has a shared vision.”

As for Cromwell, one of her missions this season will be to try and fix the defensive issues that severely plagued the 2015 Bruins.

“Last year’s defenders weren’t experienced,” Cromwell said. “The problem really stemmed from, we had a core group of four starting defenders and a goalkeeper that played almost every minute and when they graduated after the ‘14 season, that’s where there’s a lack of experience in that position.”

The lack of experience showed when the defense that allowed only six goals in 2014 over 24 games slipped to let in more than five times as many in just 19. Five of the seniors who graduated last year were also defenders, but the adjustments Cromwell has made to prevent a second act have already shown dividends.

“Since the spring (junior forward MacKenzie Cerda) has been playing left back and she’s been thriving there,” Cromwell said. “The other day in our first scrimmage she had two goals and an assist as a left back – the assist came from a corner kick – and obviously anytime your backs are scoring goals, it says good things about your attack.”

With Cerda comfortably fitting in to her new defensive role, UCLA should have a good presence on both sides of the midfield line, according to the fourth-year head coach. On the attack, veterans such as Jenkins, Alvarado, Miranda and the score of internationally renowned incoming freshmen like the Canadian national team’s Jessie Fleming will give her even more cards to play.

“(For) our attack, we have a lot of talent,” Cromwell said. “There’s going to be a lot of options and I think it’s going to be hard for teams to slow us down on the attack.”

Almost immediately, that will be tested. This Saturday, UCLA hosts No. 16 BYU for a scrimmage before playing four of their next six games against perennial powerhouses such as No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 7 Florida, No. 2 Penn State and No. 9 North Carolina.

“If you look at our schedule throughout since I’ve been here, it’s one of the toughest schedules in the country, especially non-conference,” Cromwell said. “Hopefully the positive for us is that three of the four are at home, and that makes a difference.”

Indeed, the Bruins had a winning 6-3-1 home record, and will need to repeat the success to help build a case for an NCAA Tournament bid, especially with later conference games at No. 20 Arizona and No. 11 USC.

But for now, Cromwell is focused on finding the right mix of players, which includes identifying the starting goalie between returning junior Siri Ervik and incoming Australian freshman Teagan Micah.

“I think they both have the potential to be (the starting goalie), and it’s just going to be a matter of who rises above,” Cromwell said. “Having the BYU scrimmage is going to be really important to see their communication and their leadership. Team defense is something we really need to work on for sure.”

The scrimmage will also give the women’s soccer team a game setting to see how different mixes of players work together in different formations, different set pieces – it’s all about finding the right combination, one that can help them win in the trying games to come.

Of note

Cromwell confirmed that incoming freshman Canales will not be on the roster this fall, electing to instead to play in the U20 World Cup in November. She’s in a similar position with Mallory Pugh, the second youngest U.S. women’s senior national team member, who will forgo the fall season to play in that same tournament.

“(Canales) is with us now, and she’ll be leaving us and not a part of our fall season as of now with (Pugh),” Cromwell said. “Obviously if anything changed we’d be happy to have them for the fall.”

Fleming however, Cromwell said, will join the team after the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Email Hull at [email protected] or tweet @michaelchull.

 

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Michael Hull | Alumnus
Hull joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2015 and contributed until 2017. He was an assistant Sports editor for the 2016-2017 academic year and spent time on the men's water polo, women's water polo, women's soccer, track and field and rowing beats.
Hull joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2015 and contributed until 2017. He was an assistant Sports editor for the 2016-2017 academic year and spent time on the men's water polo, women's water polo, women's soccer, track and field and rowing beats.
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