Team heads to Bay Area looking to sweep fields

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Freshman midfielder
Mike Enfield dribbles the ball past a St. Mary’s
defender earlier this season.

By Jon Corwin
Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA men’s soccer team will look to complete another
sweep of the Bay Area schools this weekend as they travel up the
coast to take on third ranked Stanford and Cal.

The Bruins (7-6-3, 2-2-0 Pac-10) still have a legitimate shot at
an NCAA Tournament bid, due in part to their stingy defensive
play.

“I feel like our defense is one of the top in the
country,” UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña said.

But the Bruin offense has had trouble scoring all season,
despite the emergence of junior midfielder Chadd Davis. Davis was
named to Soccer America’s team of the week for his two goals
and assist in UCLA’s victory over St. Mary’s in the
Pacific Soccer Classic last weekend.

“We’re still trying to focus a lot on our
finishing,” Saldaña said. “We need to continue to
put pressure offensively and finish our chances so our defense can
play confidently and not worry about that one odd chance that the
other team scores.”

Hermann Trophy candidate Alex Yi and the UCLA defense will be
put to the test as they take on the high-powered Stanford (13-1-0,
3-1-0) offense on Friday.

The Cardinal, which is coming off a 4-1 defeat of defending
Pac-10 champion Washington, is led by Roger Levesque (nine goals,
nine assists, 27 points) and Derek Shanahan (seven goals, 18
points) on offense and a solid defense that had held opponents to
an impressive 0.50 goals against average this year.

On Sunday, the Bruins will face a Cal (8-5-1, 2-2-0) team that
is also coming off a victory over Washington last week, powered by
a goal from leading scorer Austin Ripmaster (6 goals, 15 points).
Cal goalkeeper Josh Saunders carries a 0.96 goals against average,
following his recent shutout of the Huskies.

Stanford, after their gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to UCLA two weeks
ago in Westwood, the Cardinal’s only loss of the season, will
look to solidify its game for the upcoming playoffs.

“At this point in the season, we’re all looking to
peak,” Stanford head coach Bret Simon said.
“We’ve had enough time to figure out what our best team
and what our strengths and weaknesses are. We have to go and show
what we can do.”