Rowing team gears up for invitational

After weeks of competing against only West Coast schools, the
UCLA women’s rowing team will travel to the land of 10,000
lakes to challenge Big-10 power Minnesota to find out how good they
really can be.

This Saturday’s Stanford Invitational offers the Bruins a
brief respite as they face off against Sacramento State and
Division II/III champions UC Davis ““ two teams they should
have no trouble defeating.

“Both (teams) have kind of made it their goal from the
beginning of this year to beat UCLA for just one more year,”
said UCLA head coach Amy Fuller. “They know that we’re
still developing, but we want to make sure they don’t get
that win.”

On paper, this weekend’s races favor the Bruins heavily.
The last time UCLA faced Sacramento State was at the San Diego Crew
Classic two weeks ago, where they handily beat the Hornets by
almost 13 seconds.

Although the Bruins have yet to face UC Davis this year, the two
teams met in the 2002 Pac-10 championships, where the Aggies
defeated UCLA. However, the Bruins have been eager to avenge this
loss ““ something they should be perfectly capable of doing,
considering that Sacramento State beat Davis by three seconds
earlier this year.

“Obviously, now we’re a lot faster,” team
co-captain Irene Condella said. “We have more depth, and we
have more experienced rowers who are used to (Fuller’s) style
of coaching now.”

Despite their newfound speed, the Bruins know they still have to
work hard to avoid an upset bid. At the San Diego Crew Classic,
they were defeated by both Loyola Marymount and the University of
San Diego, two teams UCLA had triumphed over earlier in the season.
Fuller hopes her team learned an important lesson from the
losses.

“With LMU and USD, we were complacent (after beating them
previously), and they came back and beat us,” Fuller said.
“We learned that we can’t rest on our laurels. Our goal
is not beating Sacramento State and UC Davis. It’s reaching
our highest potential.”

While the Bruins are eager to meet this challenge on Saturday,
first-year assistant coach Billy Zach looks forward to seeing
Sacramento State in action again. As the Hornets’ coach last
season, he still cares a great deal about his old team.

“There’s still some girls on their team that
I’m very fond of, and who are fond of me. I’d like to
see them finish second in every race that you put UCLA in,”
Zach joked.

Zach’s link to Sacramento State has created a friendly
rivalry between the two teams that he looks forward to continuing
this weekend. While historically the Hornets have easily beaten the
Bruins, this is no longer always the case, and the teams have taken
to supporting each other when they’re not competing
head-to-head.

“When we were down in San Diego, all the folks from
Sacramento were cheering for UCLA in both the varsity and novice
finals,” Zach said. “They understand that they’re
at a disadvantage racing against a big Pac-10 school, and so this
is just another one of those friendly rivalries.”

With the all-important intersectional against Minnesota looming
on the horizon, the Bruins need to make sure that ““ friendly
rivalry notwithstanding ““ the opposing team is always second
when UCLA is in the water.