Wednesday, November 19, 1997
Fifth-seeded UCLA prepares to enter NCAA tournament
SOCCER:
Bruins feel very optimistic about playing host in first-round
matchBy Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
The NCAA men’s soccer tournament seeding is out, and UCLA will
finally get to host an NCAA tournament game.
After being snubbed by the NCAA last year and suffering a
first-round upset at Fullerton, the No. 2 Bruins (17-2) were
awarded a fifth seed by the NCAA and a first-round matchup against
Santa Clara (10-8). The game will be played at
1 p.m. on Sunday at Spaulding Field.
"We’re definitely happy we get to host," senior defenseman Josh
Keller said.
"It’s a lot easier playing at home, as we saw last year at
Fullerton. We’re just going to take it one game at a time, so we’re
not even looking past our next game."
According to the brackets, that next game could be against
Washington (14-2-2) or Stanford (13-4-2) Â the team UCLA beat
in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title game on Sunday.
Bruin head coach Sigi Schmid knew his team would play a West
Coast team because of geographical reasons, and was pleased to play
a non-conference foe like Santa Clara in the first round.
After the brackets were revealed on Fox Sports West, Schmid held
a team meeting to make sure all of the players were ready to
prepare the schedule for Sunday’s match.
"We just talked about the upcoming playoffs and set a theme for
this week," Schmid said.
"We just wanted to talk to the older players as to what we
wanted to do in terms of when we wanted to have a team meal,
whether we were going to a movie together and things like
that."
Schmid feels that the Bruins are now a more playoff-experienced
team  with two MPSF championship games and last year’s 2-1
upset loss to Fullerton under their collective belt. Therefore,
although disappointed in the draw, Schmid and the rest of the team
feel they are ready for any team.
"It doesn’t matter who we draw, because we can only control
ourselves," junior forward Seth George said. "I don’t think our
draw is very good, but it doesn’t matter who we draw."
All that matters to the Bruins now is the possibility of a
national championship.
The one surprise by the NCAA selection committee was the fact
that Duke was left off of the list of tournament participants. The
Blue Devils (15-5-1) are well known as a soccer powerhouse and
their record should have been good enough to warrant a
selection.
John LeCrone, the NCAA selection committee chairman, explained
on TV how Duke failed to be selected because of several reasons. He
emphasized non-conference strength of schedule (although Duke
played teams like UCLA) and their performance against top-rated
teams.
Still, many people felt Duke was unfairly treated.
"I think whenever you have a situation where a team doesn’t get
selected in the tournament like this  whether it is soccer,
basketball or any sport  the NCAA comes up with a
rationalization as to why they didn’t get in," Schmid said.
"Rationalizations are sometimes not based on truth … I’m sure
Duke can make an argument that their non-conference schedule was
just as tough as Clemson’s (who was selected for tournament
play)."