UCLA fights to remain on top

Friday, October 23, 1998

UCLA fights to remain on top

PREVIEW: Victory against Stanford propels Bruins into tie for
No.1 in Pac-10

By A. CinQue Carter

Daily Bruin Contributor

What a breath of fresh air.

The UCLA (13-2-1, 3-1-0 Pac-10) women’s soccer team lost a close
game to Cal on Friday and came back to defeat Stanford on Sunday.
With the win, they rose to a four-way tie for first place in the
conference with Cal, Washington and Washington State. Without a
victory, the NSCAA No. 19 and Soccer America No. 13 Bruins would
have fallen into a three-way tie for fifth place with Stanford and
USC.

"The Cal game was a wake-up call," sophomore midfielder Sommer
Hammoud said, "to tell us that there isn’t a Pac-10 team you can
put away with one goal.

"Everyone in the Pac-10 is good competition, and you have to do
more offensively than a single goal."

Junior defender Skylar Little, explained the importance of
keeping up the Bruins’ level of play.

"This is a crucial part of our season," Little said. "(Our
opponents) are on the weak end competitively and we hope to keep
playing well."

On tap for the Bruins are contests with Oregon tonight at
Spaulding Field and Oregon State Sunday afternoon at North Athletic
Field.

Tonight’s contest against the Ducks (4-6-2, 1-2-0) will be only
the second meeting between the two schools. UCLA won last year’s
contest 6-0 and will attempt to reproduce the same result
again.

Despite the Ducks’ record, they have had solid goal keeping.
Their top keeper, Amanda Fox (fourth in the conference in goals
against average (GAA) at 1.18), looks to keep her positive net play
going.

Against then-No. 6 Portland, Fox held her opponents 1.8 goals
under their average by giving up one goal in the 1-0 defeat. Also,
in defeats against Washington and Washington State, she gave up
four goals while only getting two goals of offense.

Testing Fox’s mettle will be the UCLA tandem of forwards Tracey
Milburn and Staci Duncan, and midfielder Breana Boling. Duncan
leads the team and conference in scoring with 24 points while
Duncan and Boling are second on the team and sixth in the
conference in scoring with 16 points.

Duncan also leads the team and conference in assists (6) and the
team in goals (9).

Conversely, an important component of the Duck offense is
freshman midfielder and forward Chalise Baysa. With 14 points,
Baysa leads the Ducks and ranks 11th in conference scoring. She is
also fifth in the conference and first on the team in goals (7).
Junior Erin Anderson is fourth in the conference and first on the
team in assists with five.

Against the Bruin defense led by defenders Little, Karissa
Hampton (sophomore), Krista Boling (freshman) and keeper Lindsay
Culp (junior) the Oregon attack probably won’t provide enough
punch.

The UCLA defensive unit showed its true colors on Sunday,
holding the conference’s fourth leading scorer, Stanford’s Tracye
Lawyer, to just one assist in the 2-1 Bruin victory. Culp, through
16 games, has only allowed nine goals to maintain a personal GAA of
0.55 and a team GAA of 0.54.

"Our defense is just awesome," Hammoud added reflecting on the
consistency of the unit. "Our backline of Little, Hampton and
Boling was just done an outstanding job. And Lindsay (Culp) has
done a superb job."

Sunday’s opponents, the Oregon State Beavers (5-7-1, 0-3-0),
while not equaling the success of Pac-10 leaders so far, can still
look in the mirror and smile at themselves. The Beavers, after a
2-15-2 campaign last season, have already topped that win total by
three games ­ with six games still to play.

"At the moment we’ve got to step back and look at ourselves in
relation to where we were and where we are now," OSU head coach
Steve Fennah said, "and judge ourselves on being successful."

"We’ve got to continue to move along those lines and then we’ll
see results in the win column as well."

It is evident that the Bruins now realize that they need to
avoid letting up on opponents.

Going into this weekend’s contests, the UCLA women’s soccer team
now realizes that they have to stay intense to achieve their
goals.

"We have to respect every single Pac-10 team," Hammoud
concluded. "But we also have to play our games.

"We have to put opponents away when we can and should. We cannot
let them hang around if we want to win the Pac-10."BAHMAN
FARAHDEL/Daily Bruin

Forward Tracey Milburn runs the ball away from the oncoming
Stanford defense.

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