Tough refereeing tests Bruins’ resilience

The UCLA women’s soccer team (11-2, 2-0 Pac-10) has been
dealing with adversity all season due to injuries and one of the
toughest nonconference schedules in the country. This past Sunday
the challenge came in the form of the rough-and-tumble style of the
Stanford Cardinal (7-5-1, 0-1-1 Pac-10.) The Bruins once again rose
to the challenge as they matched Stanford’s physicality and
came out on top with a 2-0 victory. “(Stanford) caused us to
step up how physical we were going to have to play and we
responded,” said assistant coach Joe Mallia. “We also
knocked the ball around and played some good soccer at
times.” The officiating didn’t help either team as some
inconsistent and questionable calls threatened to spiral the game
out of control. “The ref took us out of our game a little,
calling stuff,” said junior midfielder Danesha Adams.
“It’s hard to play the game when you’ve got girls
getting taken out left and right and the ref not protecting your
players. But I think once we got our momentum and realized that
this was our game, we just banded together and that was it.”
Adams used the refereeing to her advantage though during the 80th
minute of the game. After tangling with a Stanford player in what
appeared to be a foul, no call was made nor a motion for a UCLA
advantage. Adams was able to disentangle herself and cracked a shot
from 25 yards out just over the outstretched reach of the Stanford
goalie.

MORE QUESTIONABLE REFEREEING: At one point in
the first half, the referee sent off Adams after she complained
about what she perceived to be a foul. She was sent off however,
not for a foul of her own nor did she receive a card. Adams was
wearing a necklace, which is against the rules, and was told to
take it off. The rules state she should then be allowed to return,
but she was instead kept on the sideline for several minutes by the
referee. “He called a foul on me that I didn’t really
like and I was just talking to (the ref) about it,” Adams
said. “He saw my necklace, and told me to take off my
necklace and get off the field until the next sub, which
you’re not really allowed to do, … but he was just making
up his own rules. He sent me off so I was kind of upset.”

DAVIS SHIFTING POSITIONS AGAIN: Senior Captain
Bristyn Davis started off her Bruin career at forward becoming one
of the most dangerous scorers in the Pac-10. However, she was moved
to defender last season and is expected to shift back up front this
year. This weekend Davis found herself again playing along the
backline. So far this season Davis has played at forward, in the
midfield and at defender. It is still undecided what position she
will remain at for the rest of the season. “This weekend
(Davis was) what we needed with the hardness and experience in the
back,” said assistant coach Mark Carr. “We’ll
kind of wait this week and think a little bit about it.”