KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff CiCi
Peterson has come back from three knee surgeries to start
as goalkeeper for the UCLA women’s soccer team this year.
By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Talking to fourth year junior goalkeeper CiCi Peterson,
you’d think that getting hurt was the best thing that ever
happened to her.
Peterson was recruited to UCLA in 1997 by then-coach and current
Olympic team player Joy Fawcett. After playing with one of the top
clubs in the nation, the San Diego Surf, Peterson was ready to
become a Bruin and take her game to the next level.
But then it happened.
It was just another practice and as the ball crossed in front of
the goal, Peterson went down for a dive she had done a thousand
times in her life. But this time instead of sliding and landing
softly on the grass, her knee gave out.
“It was a wet day. I saved a shot and was coming across
for another and I just slipped,” Peterson said.
At first doctors thought she had simply sprained her knee, but
that “sprain” was actually a torn MCL and lateral
medial meniscus.
From there her life as a Bruin soccer player became a seemingly
endless cycle of surgeries and frustration.
“(The UCLA doctors) put pins in my meniscus and they came
loose and were floating in my knee for two months,” Peterson
said.
In the end, Peterson would have three surgeries in less than an
year.
“My freshman year was really discouraging,” Peterson
said. “From playing every single day to not playing for a
year was really hard.”
Peterson ended up redshirting her freshman season, but with
every game she missed her confidence diminished.
“I was out there trying and still in so much pain I wanted
to give up,” Peterson said. “Mentally (the injury)
killed me.”
When her sophomore season began, Peterson saw it as a chance to
heal and get back onto the field. But there was a new coach,
current UCLA men’s coach Todd Saldaña. With Lindsay Culp
(’00), the starting keeper from the year before returning,
and Peterson still on the injured list, Peterson once again spent
most of her time on the sidelines.
“Physically I was fine, all I needed was
confidence,” Peterson said. “(Saldaña)
wouldn’t give me a chance. He saw that I was injured and kind
of wrote me off.”
By her third season, Peterson had nearly given up ever playing
soccer again. In two years she had only accumulated 45 minutes in
the goal and with yet another new coach she expected to find
herself in the same situation she had dealt with the year
before.
So Peterson went in to talk to current women’s head coach
Jillian Ellis and explained everything.
“I told her my whole situation and said that I
didn’t know if I would play that year,” she said.
But instead of quietly accepting her resignation, Ellis gave
Peterson the one thing she needed ““ a chance.
“I don’t even really remember what she said, but it
was just enough to know that I had a chance,” Peterson
said.
Ellis remembers, though.
“I told her that I had no pre-set starting goalkeeper and
said she should go out there (during tryouts) and give it a
go,” Ellis said.
“Immediately CiCi had the best footskills and you want a
keeper whose confident with her feet.”
Those five days of tryouts not only renewed Peterson’s
desire to play but gave her the confidence that had kept her on the
sidelines long after her knee had healed.
“Knowing your coach is behind you and wants you to succeed
makes a lot of difference, especially in the goal where it takes a
lot of strength and confidence and support form coaches,”
Peterson said.
During the 1999 season, Peterson exploded. She went from playing
45 minutes the year before to racking up 1,203. She started 13 of
22 games and played in 16. She finished the season with a team high
43 saves and ranked eighth in the Pac-10 in goals against with a
1.65 average.
“She’s earned the respect of her teammates and
she’s blossomed,” Ellis said. “She has some
doubts about herself. Every player experiences that and different
coaches can have different impact on players.
“I came in and was a fresh face and CiCi responded to what
I wanted. Today she organizes her backline and is much more
assertive which is huge when you’re a goalkeeper.”
For the first time in a long time, Peterson loves soccer again.
But the best part is that redshirting her freshman season gives her
two more years of eligibility.
“I feel fortunate to have another year, especially under
Jill,” Peterson said.
And for those who have been keeping track of women’s
soccer, this is an exciting time for a promising Bruin squad. With
a preseason rank of 14, UCLA has already knocked off No. 10 Florida
and received it’s first top-five ranking ever.
“I’ve never seen UCLA play that well (in the game
against Florida) and if we play that way every single game we
can’t be beat,” Peterson said. “I think
we’ll surprise a lot of people.”
But then again, Peterson’s always been full of
surprises.