Monday, October 19, 1998
Bruins rebound from Cal loss with intense Cardinal defeat
RECAP: Faltering performance by UCLA against Bears kindles will
for 2-1 win over Stanford
By A. CinQue Carter
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA women’s soccer team bounced back from a disappointing
defeat Friday night against the California Bears (8-6-0, 3-1-0
Pac-10) to overcome No. 25 Stanford on Sunday afternoon.
Coming into the weekend, the NSCAA No. 14 and Soccer America No.
9 UCLA women’s soccer team (13-2-1, 3-1) came into action with
their 11-game undefeated streak and a 2-0 Pac-10 record on the
line.
Nonetheless, the Bruin squad narrowly escaped with a share of
the Pac-10 lead and a new sense of determination.
If there was ever a question of the Bruins faltering in
conference play, for 83 minutes and two seconds of the Cal contest,
it was anything but true.
Just 4:05 into the game, freshman forward Staci Duncan
intercepted a Golden Bear pass at midfield, dribbled it about 15
yards toward the Cal goal, passed it further left to sophomore
forward Tracey Milburn, who outwitted a defender and moved the ball
still closer to the goal.
Milburn, in turn, passed it back to Duncan, who was waiting in
the wing. And finally, Duncan punched it through to give the Bruins
a 1-0 lead.
That lead  and the thought of a 3-0 conference standing
 all disappeared at 87:08 when Kyla Sabo took Tami Pivnick’s
pass and scored from 18 yards out to tie the game at one
apiece.
Seemingly unaffected by the scoring of that goal and intent to
finish with a tie, the Bruins let their defense down one time too
many as Amy Balavac led a pass to Brina Kabler at 5:47 of double
overtime.
Kabler chipped the pass in, and Cal reigned victorious, 2-1.
The Golden Bears were able to enjoy sole possession of first
place in the Pac-10 for a mere 36 hours as the USC Women of Troy
continued their weekend of upsets by shutting Cal out 2-0 on
Sunday.
‘We had enough chances to score three or four goals,’ said Bruin
head coach Todd Saldaña, ‘we just couldn’t get the ball into
the net. (Yet), it’s nice to see us still creating opportunities
even though we’re struggling offensively right now.’
Saldaña stated before the Stanford game that the Bruins and
the Cardinal came into Pac-10 play as the teams to beat.
With both teams coming off of Friday losses, Sunday’s matchup
was supposed to be intense. Neither team disappointed.
Against Stanford (7-5-2, 1-3) Milburn, who went down in the
first half of the Cal contest with a twisted ankle only to return
in the second, got the Bruins on the board first once again.
In the 26th minute freshman midfielder Vanessa Clark speared a
crisp pass to Milburn in the penalty area.
Milburn then fired the ball into Cardinal keeper Carly Smolak,
who collapsed on impact while deflecting the ball back to the
shooter, and she craftily and effortlessly tapped the ball over
Smolak for the rebound goal and a 1-0 lead.
Milburn, Duncan and freshman forward Breana Boling kept Smolak
busy all day with shot after shot.
But after the first goal the Stanford keeper was able to turn
almost all of them away in the 2-1 Bruin victory.
In the end though, it was closer than the Bruins would have
liked.
With another game comfortably in hand and the Cal letdown fresh
on their minds, the Bruins managed to get the ball into the net to
take a 2-0 insurance lead at the 87:26 mark.
Immediately following a UCLA corner kick, with the ball bouncing
in front of the Cardinal net, senior forward Larisa Kiremidjian
sneaked a pass to Breana Boling, who then slid the ball through to
the net.
Boling’s goal gives her 16 points for the season tying her with
Milburn for second place on the squad.
The Bruins were fortunate to have scored when they did because
another late in the game goal was looming.
Stellar as always was Bruin goal keeper junior Lindsay Culp.
Culp’s net this season has been nothing if not an impenetrable
fortress.
Through 16 games, UCLA has given up only nine goals for a 0.54
GAA.
Culp, the Bruins’ number woman in the net, continues to lead the
Pac-10 in that category.
For 88:26, Culp was pitching a shutout until Cardinal superstar
midfielder Tracye Lawyer labored through two defenders to get a
pass to freshman forward Erin Maurer.
Maurer squeezed the pass past Culp for the final goal of the
game and a 2-1 deficit.
‘It just feels good to get this win,’ Milburn said, ‘because we
know in order to win the Pac-10 we have to win every game.
Obviously, we lost to Cal, so it was important to keep it going
today to contend for the title.’
Added sophomore defender Karissa Hampton, ‘It means a lot to us
(to beat Stanford). It shows that we haven’t given up.
‘To be Pac-10 champs, and that is our goal, we need wins like
this. It brings our spirits back up.’
Hampton harassed Lawyer, the Cardinal’s top scorer, the whole
game.
She was assigned to shadow Lawyer and effectively shut her
down.
‘We had assigned marks,’ junior defender Skylar Little said,
‘and it was Karissa’s job to defend their No. 19 (Lawyer), and she
did a great job.’
Added Hampton, ‘It was going to be hard because she’s one of the
fastest people I’m going to face in the Pac-10. I just had to
anticipate where she was going and get there first. That was my job
and I did it.’
Lawyer, who scored Stanford’s only goal in their 2-1 loss to
Southern Cal on Friday, agreed that Hampton did a superb job on
her.
‘She (Hampton) did an awesome job on me. She’s the strongest
woman I’ve faced. I knew it was going to be a battle, and it
definitely was.’
Saldaña agreed that his defense came through once again and
explained what this weekend meant to the program.
‘We played better on defense, and we’re still showing a great
deal of confidence.
‘We showed that we can beat the other best team in the
conference (Stanford). It’s good that we were able to get it done,’
Saldaña said.
MICHAEL ROSS WACHT/Daily Bruin
Sophomore forward Tracey Milburn dribbles the ball around a Cal
defender.
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