Squad out to score in Pac-10 weekend play

  EDWARD LIN Forward Staci Duncan battles
it out with a player from USC in a match from last week. The game
ended in a 1-1 tie.

By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Contributor

On Sunday at 11 a.m., the UCLA women’s soccer team will do
something it has never done before. It will host a game against
Oregon at fabled Drake Stadium on newly named Frank W. Marshall
Field, the regulation 75-yard by 120-yard pitch that was completed
last spring.

Until this season, the Bruins had played home games at a variety
of locales, including El Camino College, the North Athletic Field
and Spaulding Field, where they currently play Friday night
games.

There could be no better time to christen the Bruins’ new
home than this weekend. UCLA is riding a 10-game unbeaten streak,
that dates back to Nov. 14, 1998, and assistant coach Lisa Shattuck
expects a sizable crowd for the birth of women’s soccer in
Drake Stadium.

“I think since we haven’t had that many home games,
I’d hope people are anxious to see us play,” she said.
“I’ve heard it’s a great surface. It’s our
first game on the new field so we need to make a
statement.”

The No. 7 Bruins (9-1-1, 0-0-1 Pac-10) have made more of an
exclamation than a statement this season. After a 1-1 tie against
Southern Cal last weekend, UCLA ranks eighth nationally in scoring
offense (3.27 goals per game) and fifth in goals against average
(.353 goals per game).

The tie on Sunday at the Coliseum triggered a sense of urgency
in the Bruins, who were picked in the preseason coaches’ poll
to win the Pac-10.

“We kind of know that we have to win them all because the
Pac-10 is so tough,” senior forward Tracey Milburn said.
“Us tying that game last Sunday has gotten us up for this
week, because we want to win, of course, and we want to send a
message to the rest of the Pac-10.”

The weekend begins tonight at 8 p.m. at Spaulding Field against
Oregon State (6-7-1, 0-1-1 Pac-10).

Last weekend at home in Corvallis, the Beavers tied Arizona 1-1
but were shut out by Arizona State 2-0. Facing the Bruins and the
USC Trojans in the same weekend proves to be a daunting task for
the ostensibly overmatched Beavers.

“Obviously, we are going to play two teams that are
traditionally very good,” Oregon State head coach Steve
Fennah said in a statement.

“There’s the difficulty of playing in Los Angeles
against them, but it’s an exciting opportunity for us to go
out and play again.”

UCLA looks for vindication in Sunday’s game against the
Ducks (4-9-0, 1-1 Pac-10). Last season, the Bruins’ Pac-10
title hopes were dashed when Oregon sent them home with a 2-1 upset
loss in Eugene. But the conference is dripping with parity, and
UCLA suffered a plague of missed opportunities against USC last
weekend when it let 30 shots loose but netted only one goal.

“We’re working on shooting this week, but it’s
not something we can change in a week,” Shattuck said.
“Our team has done well and scored lots of goals so far and
that was one bad game where we didn’t put away opportunities
we needed to and it hurts us.”

With four conference teams ranked in the top 13 of the latest
NSCAA poll, the Bruins must capitalize on opportunities or be
forced to watch someone else take home the Pac-10 title.