Grueling schedule culminates in NCAA tournament bye

Friday, November 13, 1998

Grueling schedule culminates in NCAA tournament bye

PREVIEW: Title shared with rivals California and USC.

By A. CinQue Carter

Daily Bruin Contributor

Talk about the importance of scheduling a tough preseason.

The back-to-back Pac-10 champion UCLA women’s soccer team is
thanking its lucky stars after receiving the NCAA tournament bye
despite sharing the Pac-10 title with Southern Cal and UC
Berkeley.

Those teams were directly responsible for two Bruin losses.
UCLA, however, was the only Pac-10 tournament team awarded a
bye.

The No. 17 Bruins (17-3-1) can directly attribute their bye to a
strong pre-conference schedule in which they went 10-1-1, and to
conference victories over Stanford and Washington.

Ironically, the Cardinal and Huskies both fell in tournament
play on Wednesday, with Stanford losing 6-1 to Brigham Young
University.

The Bruins get their shot at the No. 18 Cougars at 1 p.m. at
North Athletic Field.

Hosting an NCAA Tournament game is unfamiliar ground for the
Bruins who have a 2-2 all-time record in the Big Dance. Last
season, the Bruins finished 19-3-0 overall and 9-0 in the Pac-10,
but still had to travel in each round of the Tournament.

UCLA opened up with a 1-0 victory over seventh-seeded Portland
and a 3-2 victory over unseeded Southern Methodist University.

However, an 8-0 setback to second-seeded Notre Dame brought to a
screeching halt the fairy tale Bruin season ­ a season in
which in which the team would win its first-ever Pac-10 crown, NCAA
tournament game, set a school record for shutouts (10) and
victories (19).

But despite the Bruin’s accomplishments and impressive record,
an early season loss to BYU had them thinking that they might not
even make the tournament. The 7-1 Bruins hosted the Cougars and
wound up giving up three goals for the only time in the regular
season.

"We have a lot of motivation to beat them," sophomore midfielder
Sommer Hammoud said of BYU, "because of last year. We dominated
them but fell short in the end."

New UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña is in his first year at
the Bruin helm. Saldaña has totaled 49 wins in his four years
of collegiate coaching and will be looking for No. 50 this weekend.
He has coached UCLA to a career high 17 wins this season.

The new Bruin leader is one of the major forces responsible for
the Bruin attack. That offense is more potent than any team to take
the field for UCLA, with five players scoring in double figures.
This squad’s 139 team points lead the Pac-10 and are the second
highest point total in school history.

"We just have to play like we know we can play," Hampton said,
"and everything will fall into place."

These offensive and defensive players will join forces with
junior keeper Lindsay Culp, Hammoud and freshmen midfielders Bree
Edwards and Vanessa Clark and all the contributing reserves to
produce the best result possible in the NCAA Tournament.

"We’re going to the Tournament to win," Hammoud said. "We want
to get to the Final Four.

"We’re not satisfied just saying we made it to the Tournament.
And I have complete confidence in our team. We will definitely play
our hearts out."MARY CIECEK

Freshman defender Krista Boling is a major part of UCLA’s
success.

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