Team exhibits style from park to Sydney

By Greg Lewis

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

UCLA has an Olympic tradition unmatched by any other school, and
this tradition extends to softball, where it is the dominant school
with seven players on the 19-person roster.

UCLA is as conspicuous in international competition as it is at
the collegiate level. The seven players on the national team had
played in four of UCLA’s nine national championships.

Bruins on the U.S. team roster are Stacey Nuveman
(1997-present), Christie Ambrosi (class of 1999), Jennifer Brundage
(1995), Lisa Fernandez (1993), Sheila Cornell-Douty (1984), Dot
Richardson (1983) and alternate Amanda Freed (1999-present). Since
alternates will not travel to Sydney, Nuveman is the team’s
only collegian.

Tanya Harding (1995), Joanne Alchin (1993) and Kerry Dienelt
(1991) will play in the 2000 Games for Australia, which, along with
China, is Team USA’s main competition for the gold in
Sydney.

For the three current Bruins ““ Nuveman, Freed, plus
assistant coach Lisa Fernandez ““ the Olympics give them a
chance not only to represent the United States in Sydney, but UCLA
as well.

“Instead of playing for 32,000 people like in Oklahoma
(site of the College World Series), we’re playing for 32,000
plus millions. It’s a lot more pressure,” Fernandez
said.

There’s also one huge difference for the Bruins, according
to Fernandez. “The relationships change. At UCLA, I am their
coach. On the national team, I am their teammate,” she said.
“It’s so different ““ as a coach I can’t
really be their friend, but (on the national team I am their
friend) as a player, it’s great because I also realize that I
can learn from them.”

Team USA began its pre-Olympic “Central Park to
Sydney” tour of exhibition games in June and is 18-0 through
Friday, June 23.

So far, all seven Bruins have performed extremely well.

On Friday, joining the team after completing finals at school,
Freed pitched a perfect game in her debut, striking out 11 batters
in five innings of a 19-0 win. Nuveman is the team’s starting
catcher and is second on the team in on-base percentage, batting
average and slugging average. Fernandez has yet to allow a run in
three games as a pitcher and is first in on-base percentage, and
third in batting.

Cornell-Douty starts at first, Richardson starts at second base,
Brundage at third and Ambrosi in left.

“Training with the national team is different,”
Nuveman said. “It’s much more self-motivated. When
you’re in college, every day is planned, the schedule is
strict. With the national team, there is much more training on your
own. A lot of the time you are away from the team, but you still
have to do the individual workout.”

When not training in the Olympic facility in Chula Vista,
Nuveman, Fernandez and Ambrosi work out in Los Angeles. Before the
2000 softball season, Ambrosi and Nuveman learned they would not be
able to play for the UCLA and national teams at the same time.
Ambrosi gave up her final year of eligibility at UCLA to play in
the Olympics, Nuveman redshirted the season, and Fernandez was
forced to miss occasional games when her national team
responsibilities called.

The loss of UCLA’s two best hitters was huge for the
Bruins, but head coach Sue Enquist took it in stride. “Losing
Christie Ambrosi and Stacey Nuveman to the Olympic team sends a
great message to our current team. If you work hard here, you have
a wonderful opportunity to be recognized as an Olympian,”
Enquist said.

In March the Olympic team, playing with Fernandez and Nuveman,
defeated Freed and UCLA 3-0 and

2-0. UCLA was the only college Team USA played.

In addition to the seven Bruins on the national team, Natasha
Watley, who just completed her freshman season as an National
Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American, was the youngest player
to make the final round of tryouts for the national team.

“Even though I didn’t make it, going through the
tryouts was a good thing. Next time around, I’ll have an
advantage over the new players because I will have gone through the
experience already,” Watley said.

UCLA also placed four players on the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team,
with Fernandez, Richardson and Cornell starting and Brundage making
the team as an alternate. Janice Parks (1989) played for the Puerto
Rican national team in the ’96 games.

Through 18 games of the “Central Park to Sydney,”
the undefeated Team USA has outscored the opposition by an
overwhelming 133-1 margin. The United States has dominated in
international competition since winning the inaugural softball
Olympic gold medal in 1996. It has won almost every prestigious
tournament, including the Canada Cup, the Pan-American Games and
the International Softball Federation World Championships.

Team USA will play approximately one-third of its tour games
against WPSL teams, where the squad will get its best pre-Sydney
indication of how it is playing. So far, the national team has
defeated the Akron Racers and the Florida Wahoos each by scores of
1-0. The low scoring games indicate to national team head coach
Ralph Raymond that the pitching is right on track, but the
hitters’ timing is a bit off.

The tour goes through 31 cities, before ending in Hawaii on
Sept. 3. Olympic play begins Sunday Sept. 17 against Canada. Every
U.S. softball game will be televised by NBC.