UCLA works toward NCAA playoff top seed

  CATHY JUN Midfielder Breana Boling
handles the ball against Stanford last Friday night at Spaulding
Field.

By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Contributor

With games against Arizona and Arizona State this weekend, one
season will end for the UCLA women’s soccer team, but then
the real one will begin.

The No. 5 Bruins (14-2-1, 5-1-1 Pac-10) will not end the year
Pac-10 champions but they will enter the NCAA playoffs as one of
the most dangerous squads in the country. This weekend’s
games in the Valley of the Sun can legitimize the Bruins’
claim to a top eight seed.

UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said she has talked with her team
all year about three seasons ““ non-conference, Pac-10, and
playoff. Two games remain before her Bruins can focus on the season
where solid play, not a conference championship, matters.

Standing in the way tonight on this championship weekend are the
Arizona State Sun Devils (12-5-1, 3-4-0), a team that resides in
seventh place in the conference but is liable to pull off an upset
at any time, especially on their home turf.

“Every team is out to beat us,” senior defender
Karissa Hampton said. “Teams like Arizona State, they work
hard. We don’t want to mess up our ultimate goal ““ we
want a good seed in the playoffs.”

The Bruins will travel across the state to Tucson for a matchup
with Arizona on Sunday. The Wildcats (3-13-2, 0-6-1) have lost
their last seven games and have been a paragon of futility, but the
Bruins know better than to chalk up a premature victory.

“We can’t take any teams lightly,” junior
Stephanie Rigamat said. “It’s hard to play against
teams that aren’t supposed to be that great, because you have
to pick yourself up to play your game instead of playing at their
level. I think we’ve done that in the past and I think
we’re going to do it again.”

UCLA has never lost to Arizona or Arizona State. Ellis expects
her team to prepare themselves mentally for their last games before
it becomes do-or-die in the playoffs.

“I think mental preparation comes from the players.
We’ve been talking about mental preparation all year long.
We’ll treat these games the same as any other games and
expect them to go out and get the business done,” Ellis
said.

Rigamat is one Bruin who has been getting the business done.
Last weekend against Cal and Stanford, she registered two goals and
two assists, earning her honors as Pac-10 Player of the Week.

“She’s been a starter for almost half the season.
Her impact is in her pace. She just puts an energy on the field.
She is explosive enough that she should be shooting for a goal a
game,” Ellis said.

Rigamat is UCLA’s second Pac-10 Player of the Week. Senior
forward Tracey Milburn received the accolade for the week of Oct.
16.

The Bruins should be able to get back to Westwood Sunday night
in time for the announcement of the bracket for the 2000 NCAA
Women’s Soccer Championships. Rigamat displayed the kind of
confidence that has been characteristic of a team many consider the
best in UCLA history.

“I have no doubt that we’ll make it,” she
said.

“It” was a not too covert reference to the Final
Four, a place the Bruins have yet to visit.