Monday, November 3, 1997
UCLA overcomes player shuffle to topple Duke
SOCCER Bruins tackle first Pac-10 team, taking first place at
meet
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
The No. 3-ranked UCLA men’s soccer team now makes it a habit to
thrive under adversity.
During this weekend’s UCLA Soccer Classic, the Bruins (15-2)
were forced to shuffle their lineup because of a possible fracture
to junior midfielder Tom Poltl’s right leg. But the Bruins overcame
the loss of a steady starter and won the tournament with a 3-1
victory over the University of Massachusetts on Friday night and
with a 4-2 triumph over No. 6 Duke on Sunday.
"I told our guys that we have to approach (the Duke game) as a
playoff game," UCLA head coach Sigi Schmid said. "We’ve got to
measure ourselves and say: We think we can win a national title.
Well, if we think we can win a national title, then we’ve got to be
able to take a team like Duke and beat them."
Sunday’s showdown marked the first time that Bruins faced a
top-10 team and UCLA held nothing back from the very start.
After a sluggish victory over the Minutemen in which Nick Paneno
scored the winning goal with less than five minutes to go, the
Bruins knew they had to turn up their level of play to beat
Duke.
True-freshman midfielder Ryan Lee opened the scoring for the
Bruins in the 12th minute with a shot from point-blank range. But
Duke (14-4) answered almost immediately when junior midfielder Jay
Heaps notched his team-leading 10th goal off a rebound from a save
by UCLA’s senior goalkeeper Matt Reis.
"I knew it was going to be an exciting game," UCLA senior
forward Seth George, who tied a tournament record with three
assists against Duke, said. "I looked at (Nick) Theslof right after
we scored and they scored and I said ‘This is going to be an
incredible game.’ And it was."
Less than a minute after Duke’s first goal, UCLA true-freshman
forward McKinley Tennyson Jr. scored his second goal of the
tournament and first of the game. Tennyson Jr. added another goal
in the 36th – he was named co-offensive MVP for the tournament
along with George.
Schmid’s decision to start Tennyson Jr. for only the fifth time
in 17 games proved to be a stroke of genius. But George believes
that another decision by Schmid proved to be more instrumental to
the success of the Bruins.
"I think the main change was Theslof in the middle," George
said. "He’s the perfect connection between the halfbacks and the
forward line."
Theslof, a senior forward, played in the midfield two years ago,
but Schmid placed him in the front line during the 1996 season. The
injury to Poltl left Schmid with no better choice than to drop
Theslof back a little.
The strategy worked to perfection as UCLA has only scored more
than four goals only once this season (Sept. 21 at Sacramento
State).
"Playing as a forward the whole time, I kind of knew what was
missing in the midfield," Theslof said. "And the forwards played
great today. I just had to support them."
* * *
UCLA won the tournament with a 2-0 record. Duke finished second
with a 1-1 record. Cal State Fullerton came in third with a 1-1
record – Duke won the tie-breaker because of the Blue Devil’s 4-1
victory over the Titans on Friday. The Minutemen were swept, losing
3-1 to UCLA on Friday and 2-1 to Fullerton on Sunday.
UCLA senior defenseman Kevin Coye was named tournament defensive
MVP.