UCLA prepares for Pac-10, opposing Arizona schools

By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Reporter

UCLA women’s soccer head coach Jillian Ellis likes to tell
her team that it really plays three seasons.

The first is the non-conference season, which her No. 2 Bruins
(9-0-0) have skated through with ease. The third is the postseason,
where they hope to repeat the breakout success of last
season’s national championship game appearance.

The second season begins now.

UCLA enters this weekend’s Pac-10 season openers against
Arizona (3-5-1) and Arizona State (6-4-0) untouched and saddled
with the familiar burden of being the preseason conference
favorite.

“We’ve been picked to win the past two years and
haven’t won it,” Ellis said. “This year,
it’s something that is in our minds.

“There are nine games in the second season for us, and the
competition is even more difficult,” added Ellis.

Although Friday night’s opponent Arizona, has already
matched last season’s win total with three and has shown
improvement in its nine non-conference matches, the more difficult
competition Ellis speaks of will come this Sunday from Arizona
State.

Last season, the Sun Devils frustrated a high-powered Bruin
attack by placing five defenders in the back and snuck away with a
game-winning goal in double overtime.

It was only UCLA’s third loss of the season and came in a
game they expected to win.

“We pretty much dominated the entire game, and they
bunkered everybody,” senior defender Bethany Bogart said.
“They just put all 11 players behind the ball. It’s
frustrating to play someone who doesn’t play to
win.”

Ellis doesn’t expect new Sun Devil head coach Ray Leone to
sit back in a conservative defensive scheme.

Leone was head coach at Clemson last season when the Bruins
upset his Tigers to advance to their first-ever College Cup.

“I expect them to play a three-front,” she said.
“He’s attack-minded, and I think they’ll come at
us. They’ve got nothing to lose.”

Arizona State comes to Westwood after a pair of heartbreaking
one-goal shutout losses and has its work cut out for it.

Leone’s squad has to play streaking USC Friday and then
faces the Herculean task of defeating UCLA at home, where the
Bruins have not lost in 17 games.

UCLA also returns sophomore defender Nandi Pryce for the first
time since September 2000.

Let the second season begin.