Arkenberg drives wins home
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 12, 1997 9:00 p.m.
Monday, October 13, 1997
Arkenberg drives wins home
W. SOCCER Victories over Cal, Stanford influenced by No. 9
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Contributor
Where would the No. 18 UCLA Women’s soccer team be without No. 9
Traci Arkenberg?
UCLA head coach Joy Fawcett doesn’t want to know.
After this weekend, the senior forward has 148 career points in
the blue and gold.
To see how remarkable this scoring total is one need only to
look further down the list. Sonja Munevar of the 1993 squad is
second with 32 points, 116 points behind Arkenberg.
Once again spearheaded by the powerful leg of Arkenberg over the
weekend, the Bruins garnered a sweep of Cal and Stanford to
commence Pac-10 play.
The Bruins beat the Golden Bears 1-0 on Friday and downed the
Cardinal 2-1 on Sunday, a match televised on Fox Sports Net.
The sweep gives the Bruins a 2-0 Pac-10 record and a 10-2
overall record.
No. 9 proved to be the difference in both games, stepping up to
push the Bruins past both Bay Area schools. She had a hand – or
better, a foot – in all three goals scored over the weekend.
With the score knotted at zero in the first half of the
California game, Arkenberg headed-in a Tiffany Brown free-kick 28
minutes into the match.
It was the two-time All-Pac-10 first teamer’s 12th goal of the
year and 30th point of the season. Arkenberg leads the Pac-10 and
the West Region in both scoring categories.
The goal proved to be the game winner as UCLA goalie Lindsay
Culp was able to hold off the Golden Bear charge late in the
game.
Culp was tested with 12 minutes left in the game when Cal’s Amy
Bavalac rocketed a shot from 17 yards out at the left corner of the
net. But Culp was able to make a spectacular diving save, her
seventh of the game, knocking the ball wide of the net to preserve
the victory.
In the Stanford match, Arkenberg led to the Cardinal demise as
she was a factor in both Bruin goals.
After Stanford senior Emily Burt found the UCLA net at 17:22,
giving the Cardinal an early 1-0 lead, Arkenberg took over, as she
has so many times in her Bruin career.
The senior scored an equalizer off a direct kick at 26:52 in the
first half to tie the match before halftime.
Both teams then played a highly contested second half before
Arkenberg set up Rochelle Ouchi for the game-winning goal at
57:31.
With the game-winning goal at California, the Bruins are now
38-4-3.
The two victories are huge in terms of the Bruins’ playoff
hopes.
Head Coach Joy Fawcett stated after UCLA’s defeat to highly
ranked BYU, the last ranked team on UCLA’s schedule, that the
Bruins had to win their remaining 10 games to make the
playoffs.
The team has now won three straight games after the BYU
setback.
The only two ways to make the playoffs in women’s soccer are to
either win the conference or get an at-large bid.
Earning an at-large bid for UCLA would be difficult if the
Bruins end up not winning the Pac-10. Although the team is 10-2
overall, it has not beaten any ranked teams and has a loss to BYU,
a highly ranked team in their region.
The Bruins are hoping to take the other path to the playoffs by
winning the Pac-10 and the automatic berth to the playoffs, keeping
their playoff hopes in their own hands.
Without the consistent contributions and clutch play from
Arkenberg, who knows where the Bruins might be this year.
