Soccer’s women fight to stay on top
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 2, 1997 9:00 p.m.
Friday, October 3, 1997
Soccer’s women fight to stay on top
After a long, hard week of practicing scoring, the women’s
soccer team will take on the University of San Francisco today in a
3 p.m. match at El Camino College.
The No. 19 Bruins (7-2) are coming off a crucial 3-1 loss to BYU
in a game UCLA played well enough to win.
UCLA outshot the highly ranked Cougars 33-14 and hit two goal
posts but failed to put the ball in the net after Senior Traci
Arkenberg’s goal in the opening minutes.
BYU was the last ranked team left on the Bruins schedule and a
highly ranked school in their region. If the Bruins do not end up
winning the Pac-10 and the automatic berth to the playoffs, the
loss to the Cougars could be the game that denies the team an at
large berth to the big dance.
After the frustrating and crushing defeat, UCLA head coach Joy
Fawcett has put more emphasis on finishing scoring chances in
practice all this week.
"(This game) is very important," Fawcett said. "If we lose this
game, we are losing to a team that is not ranked and not having a
great season. The only time you want to lose is to the great teams.
If we lost to this team it would hurt us."
Fawcett believes the Bruins must win their remaining 10 games to
be assured a spot in the playoffs.
"I’ll never give up hope if we lose another game because there’s
always that chance," Fawcett said. "But it doesn’t look good from
here on out because we aren’t playing anyone ranked above us."
But the Lady Dons will not just roll over for the Bruins. The
Lady Dons have beaten Pepperdine, Rutgers, and San Diego, three
teams UCLA has also beaten.
"They love to try to beat UCLA , everyone does," Fawcett said.
"They’ll probably be playing their best game because it’s probably
their most important game left on their schedule. I’m sure they’ll
give us a game. We can’t expect to just show up and win."
