Wild Wild Westwood

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior
Earl Watson gets by the Arizona defense in
February. When the Bruins won, the crowd rushed the court at Pauley
Pavilion.

By Pauline Vu, Amanda Fletcher, Dylan Hernandez
and Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff For those of you who blinked and missed
the bulk of the year, here’s the Daily Bruin’s
handy-dandy year-end guide to what the UCLA sports scene looked
like in 2000-01. We figured, who better to tell you what happened
than the Bruin sports staff, which actually had to read about all
this stuff? So here’s our take on the year, from the winners
to the losers to the in-between teams who have made it an
unpredictable year in Westwood.

IS THERE A CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE HOUSE? Maybe it was one title
short of last year’s record-breaking year, but UCLA still
made its mark on the athletic scene this year with four national
titles, all of them repeat titles. Men’s water polo: After
captain Adam Wright was deemed ineligible for the rest of his
senior season due to a mistake concerning his redshirt year, the
men’s water polo team was left without its leading scorer. So
as they stepped onto the deck of the Pepperdine pool for the NCAA
title game, the Bruins were determined to redeem their tumultuous
season. And they did just that. All five seniors scored in
UCLA’s 11-2 win over UC San Diego to help the Bruins win one
for Wright and give them a three-peat. Women’s indoor track:
As defending national champions, the pressure was on, but the
Bruins had to face it without Seilala Sua (“˜00), the
winningest track and field athlete in UCLA history. With four true
freshmen competing in the finals, UCLA’s inexperience was
evident. But the youngsters’ competitive drive and success
not only proved why they were named the No. 1 recruiting class in
the country, but also brought hope for seasons to come. Gymnastics:
The defending national champions boasted a roster that included
three Olympic athletes, and UCLA was the team to beat from Day 1.
But it wasn’t until the final rotation in the NCAA
Championship that the Bruins were truly tested. After two falls on
the balance beam, all four remaining gymnasts had to hit nearly
perfect routines to reclaim the lead. With each resounding
dismount, the Bruins scored a 9.9 or above to bring their apparatus
total to 49.575, the second highest mark in school history, earning
their third title in five years. Women’s water polo: It was
the monkey that just wouldn’t get off their backs. In four
previous matches against rival Stanford, the UCLA women’s
water polo team had notched four losses. And as the No. 1 and two
teams in the nation, it wasn’t surprising to find them once
again matched up in the NCAA finals. But the Bruins weren’t
about to let it happen again. Capitalizing on the man-down plays
that eluded them all season, the Bruins defeated Stanford 5-4 to
claim the first NCAA women’s water polo title. Swimming:
Maybe they didn’t win a national championship, but the women
won a controversial Pac-10 Championship over Arizona a week after
competition took place when a team parent found out then that the
diving scores had been improperly added up. Underdogs: Here’s
to those Bruin teams that weren’t expected to go far but did.
Topping this category are the two golf teams, as the men upset
quite a few teams at NCAA West Regionals to make it to NCAA
Championships. The women, meanwhile, upstaged them with a shocking
fifth-place showing at NCAA Championships.

WAIT “˜TIL NEXT YEAR You could blame it on youth. You could
blame it on injuries. You could even call it a “transition
year.” But whatever the reason, make no mistake about it, the
following programs had seasons that were just sub-par by Bruin
standards. Men’s soccer: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. They
opened the season with a No. 1 ranking, a much-heralded freshman
class and won eight straight. But then Pac-10 play started. The
Bruins dropped six of its next eight games. They struggled to make
the playoffs and had to win their last two games to make it. Then,
on a cold day in San Diego, the Bruins lost in the first round on
overtime goal to the Aztecs. Women’s basketball: What else
can you say for a team that opened the season 0-6 and lost an
exhibition game to Love & Basketball, a team made up of extras
from the movie? Still, the women’s hoops team had its
reasons, as it unexpectedly lost two expected starters. But the
women redeemed themselves in the end. Though they ended the season
6-23, they won three of their last four games, including a victory
over Elite Eight-bound Washington. Women’s tennis: They
started with all the promise in the world, when athletic tragedy
struck. No. 1 Sara Walker got hurt. No. 3 Zana Zlebnik got hurt.
For nine matches, a Bruin victory was unheard of. But the team
showed its mettle in the end. Second-seeded in its Regionals, UCLA
upset top-seed Fresno State to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The
women lost to Vanderbilt there, but by even making the Sweet
Sixteen they managed something many didn’t think they could.
Men’s tennis: If you were to look at the season up until the
men competed at NCAA Championships, you could call this season a
success. They were No. 1 for most of the season. But it all crashed
and burned at the end with an upset loss to Southern Methodist in
the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins, though loaded
with the talent to go all the way, didn’t win the
championship for the 16th straight year.

ALMOST THE WHOLE ENCHILADA In the case of all four of these
teams that made it to the championship game before falling, it
wasn’t so much that they choked as it was they simply went up
against a better team. Not that that makes it any easier.
Women’s soccer: They went into the season ranked No. 14 and
ended up at No. 2. After starting the season with a loss to
then-No. 6 Clemson, the Bruins went on a 13-game winning streak.
The Bruins later got revenge over Clemson in the quarterfinals,
which sent UCLA to the Final Four. In the title game, the Bruins
faced off against soccer powerhouse North Carolina, which had15
national titles in their archives. Though UCLA led the game 1-0
into the 54th minute of play, UNC responded with two goals to claim
their 16th crown. Men’s volleyball: They opened their season
with a lot of change to adjust to. Not only did they lose five
senior starters to graduation but they lost star senior outside
hitter Mark Williams early on due to an ankle injury. The Bruins
still had a successful season, beating every team they faced
““ including Stanford on the third try ““ with the
exception of BYU, to whom they fell for the second time in the
season in the NCAA title game. Softball: The Bruin softball squad
goes deep in tradition, but they were stopped short of their ninth
NCAA title for the second year in a row, this time by conference
rival Arizona, the only team to beat UCLA more than once this
season. Going into the championship game, the Bruins were 62-5. The
key to that game was Wildcat pitcher Jennie Finch, who had shut out
the Bruins twice during the regular season and did it again in the
title game. Arizona ended the Bruins’ season with a solo home
run from catcher Lindsey Collins in the fourth inning.
Women’s track: They went into the NCAA Championships as one
of the favorites to win it all. The Bruins encountered more than a
few fluke occurrences throughout the competition, including the 4 x
100-meter relay team not finishing the race because of a botched
handoff between the first two legs. The Bruins just couldn’t
seem to gain any momentum until the final day of competition, but
by then it was too late. And with only a handful of their athletes
having national-level experience, the Bruins were beat out for the
title by USC.

NO SURPRISES HERE And then there were the teams that
didn’t shock us in any way, shape or form, whether they were
really talented or really mediocre. Baseball: Going into the 2001
season, the Bruins appeared to be in dismal shape, having lost 11
players to the draft the year before. Although late-season injuries
prevented the team from breaking into the NCAA Tournament field of
64, the Bruins had a good year, going 30-27. Men’s track: The
team did not have enough depth to contend for an NCAA championship,
but throwers Scott Moser, Dan Ames and Nate Marum, along with
hurdler Kyle Erickson, advanced to the championship meet. Moser was
the highest placing Bruin by taking home third in the discus.
Women’s volleyball: The Bruins’ season started strong
with the No. 1 rank, and everyone wanted to knock the squad off.
But with the early loss of middle blocker Angela Eckmier, the
Bruins had to quickly readjust. After a rigorous preseason, the
Bruins survived an up and down conference season to reach the NCAA
tournament. The Bruins advanced to the quarterfinals, where they
fell to Wisconsin in four games. Men’s cross country: Head
Coach Eric Peterson’s first season with the team was supposed
to just set the foundation for future years. But by the midseason,
UCLA was in contention for an NCAA berth. Although the team did not
get to the big meet, junior Bryan Green qualified as an individual.
Women’s cross country: The Bruins were without former indoor
track mile champ Kate Vermuelen, who left school, Kelly Cohn, who
quit the team and Elaine Canchola, who was redshirted. But they
still had some good races. Senior Tina Bowen made the NCAA
Championships as an individual.

A ROLLER COASTER RIDE Just where do we put football and
basketball, where just about no one agrees on the type of year
they’ve had? Easy. Put them here, where “roller coaster
ride” can mean any and everything. Football: The season
opened with the Bruins beating two No. 3 teams in the first three
games ““prompting then-quarterback Ryan McCann to say he
didn’t understand how anyone could say UCLA wasn’t the
No. 1 team in the country. It ended with the Bruins losing 21-20 in
the Sun Bowl to Wisconsin. Along the way the Bruins lost in
triple-overtime to Cal 46-38 , beat Stanford 37-35 to just meet the
minimum requirement for a bowl berth, and then lost to “˜SC
38-35 to make it two wins in a row for them. Men’s
basketball: Winners or losers? There are those who call a Sweet
Sixteen finish good, others who find it merely acceptable, and
others who will call for Lavin’s head nonetheless because
they just don’t like him. How do you define a season when a
team went from losing to Cal State Northridge to upsetting
top-ranked Stanford? How do you define a season when Athletic
Director Peter Dalis showed hints of wanting to replace Lavin with
Rick Pitino, while the team used that to inspire them to even
greater play? It cannot be defined. So just admit that this year
was yet another chapter in the mystery book of UCLA basketball and
move on. From bad losses and bad near-losses to a 11-2 run all the
way to the Sweet Sixteen, the season was, at the very least, the
wildest ride in town.

MEMORABLE QUOTES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR Original
graphic by JOAN ONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web adaptation by
HERNANE TABAY/Daily Bruin Senior Staff