The Associated Press USA’s Lisa
Fernandez jumps into the arms of Jennifer
McFalls, who scored the gold-medal winning run vs. Japan
at the 2000 Olympics.
By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
SYDNEY, Australia “”mdash; Every Olympics, UCLA sends more
athletes to the games than any other university. This year was no
exception with 50 Bruins competing and coaching for eight different
countries.
Olympic team sports are well-stocked with Bruins who have been
responsible for many of the school’s 103 national
championships. Of UCLA’s 18 medals, 14 were awarded in team
sports, seven gold, four silver and three bronze.
Softball, where UCLA has dominated the NCAA, was the most
well-represented of the team sports. Eight Bruins played softball
in Sydney, five winning gold medals for the United States and three
earning bronze for the Aussies.
For the second Olympics in a row, pitcher Lisa Fernandez
asserted herself as the best player in the world, pitching in the
team’s most important games, including the extra-inning gold
medal game against the previously-undefeated Japanese squad.
The softball team had won 112 games in a row before the Japanese
beat USA in the preliminary round, also in extra-innings. In the
next game the U.S. lost to fourth-place China in an Olympic-record
14 innings. That brought on a matchup with the hometown Aussies,
the only team to beat the United States in Atlanta four years
ago.
That game went 13 innings, with Fernandez striking out an
Olympic record 25 of the 40 batters she faced. UCLA’s
Christie Ambrosi singled home Team USA’s only run of the game
in the top of the 13th.
In the bottom of the inning, however, Australia’s Peta
Edebone hit a two-run home run to left field to win the game.
“I made two mistakes the whole game,” Fernandez
said. “That one was a dropball that didn’t
drop.”
The game was almost identical to the United States’ loss
in 1996, in which Fernandez was perfect through 10 innings before
relinquishing a home run to lose the game.
The U.S. came back to win the next two games in preliminary
play, drawing a medal round matchup against the Chinese. UCLA
junior catcher Stacey Nuveman, the only current collegian on the
squad, practically won the game by herself.
She picked two runners off first base, including one in the top
of the 14th. In the bottom of the inning, she hit a three-run home
run to win the game for the U.S.
The win forced a rematch with Australia, with the loser taking
home the bronze, and the winner facing the powerful Japanese squad.
Fernandez struck out 13 Aussies in USA’s only game against a
medal-round team that did not go into extra innings. After the gold
medal game, the U.S. played a total of five extra inning games.
Nuveman and Fernandez again starred in the gold medal game.
Nuveman went 2-for-3, including an RBI single in the fifth to tie
the score at one and a single in the bottom of the eighth that
ended up being the winning run after Jennifer McFalls took on the
pinch running duties.
Third baseman Jennifer Brundage, second baseman Dr. Dot
Richardson and first baseman Sheila Cornell-Douty, who each started
every game, also earned gold medals for UCLA and the United
States.
Former UCLA players Tanya Harding, who pitched Australia to its
preliminary round victory over the United States, catcher Kerry
Dienelt and right fielder JoAnne Brown all earned bronze medals
while
representing Australia.
Junior Amanda Freed was an alternate for the U.S. team. She made
the trip to Sydney and was pulled out of the stands to celebrate
after the gold-medal victory.
In women’s water polo, four Bruins lost the closest gold
medal game in Olympics history, as Australia beat the U.S. on a
long range shot with less than half a second left.
The contest was a rematch of a preliminary game in which the
Aussies won 7-6. UCLA head coach Guy Baker coached the Americans,
Nicolle Payne was the tournament’s best goalkeeper, and
senior Coralie Simmons also played strong, scoring nine goals.
Sophomore Robin Beauregard scored six goals for the U.S.
squad.
The two USA-Australia games were the two highest-attended
women’s water polo games in history.
The women’s soccer team featured two of the last three
UCLA head coaches: Joy Fawcett playing at the midfield spot and
current coach Jillian Ellis as an assistant coach.
Team USA came out of the Games’ toughest bracket, going
unbeaten against the world’s second- and third-best teams,
Norway and China, to advance to the medal round.
In the gold medal game against Norway however, the defense broke
down in the final minute of play, allowing the Nords to tie the
game at two.
The U.S. outplayed Norway for most of the game, but came up
short, allowing a golden goal in overtime and taking home the
silver.
The Olympics were probably the last for Fawcett, who won gold in
’96. Ellis traveled around Australia for most of the
tournament, scouting the United States’ upcoming
opponents.
“It was a great and unbelievable experience, not just the
soccer side of it but the atmosphere,” Ellis said.
“Just to be around those elite athletes was a tremendous
honor.”
On the men’s side, Pete Vagenas, Sasha Victorine, Frankie
Hejduk and Brad Friedel helped the U.S. to its best ever Olympic
finish. The men lost to Chile in the bronze medal game.
Like the women, the men’s team outplayed the competition
for most of the game, but still came up short.
“I don’t think there’s any question that we
were definitely the dominant (team) in terms of physicality. Games
like that when you have the run of play for the first 20-25 minutes
and you don’t score, it’s bound to shift the other way.
They really didn’t get that much of the ball or that much of
the play up until the end,” Vagenas said.
Most people expected the men’s volleyball team to contend
in the medal round, but it was not to be.
UCLA head coach Al Scates sent Bruins Dan Landry, Jeff Nygaard
and Erik Sullivan to Sydney, but their performances were
disappointing, especially because Nygaard was suffering from the
effects of mono and strep throat. The team hit a low point in the
fourth game, losing to winless South Korea to eventually place
11th.
“It was very disappointing,” Scates said.
“That team could’ve won a medal, and if they’d
played well, we could’ve done a gold medal. We weren’t
expected to, but if we were at the top of our game we
could’ve won a gold medal.”
Ironically, fans and family members at the tournament were
wondering if Scates, the winningest coach in NCAA history, would
ever accept a spot as the national team’s head coach.
“Well, I’m not interested if they’re going to
continue on in Colorado Springs,” Scates said of the national
team’s training center.
“That’s why I turned the job down the last
time.”
UCLA senior Mark Williams competed for the hometown Aussie
squad, which also failed to make the medal round, though they ended
up placing eighth.
The UCLA men’s water polo team started its season without
senior Sean Kern, as he and former Bruin Dan Hackett battled
traditional men’s water polo powers Russia, Yugoslavia and
Spain to a sixth place finish at the Olympics.
Natalie Williams, who also tried out for the U.S. volleyball
team, scored a team-high 15 points to help secure an undefeated
record and the gold medal for women’s basketball.
Part of the reason Sports Illustrated chose UCLA as the No. 1
athletic school in the country in 1997 was because of its
longstanding tradition of training Olympic athletes. With 13 medals
in team sports, UCLA continued their custom of cultivating
top-level athletes.
With contributions from Jeff Agase and Pauline Vu, Daily Bruin
Senior Staff.
UCLA’S 2000 OLYMPIANS With 18 overall medals
and eight gold medals, UCLA was the most represented university on
the medal stand at the Sydney Games. Women’s Basketball
(team finished first) Natalie Williams (’94) Men’s
Gymnastics (team finished fifth) Steve McCain (’94)
Women’s Gymnastics (team finished fourth) Jamie Dantzscher
(freshman) Kristen Maloney (freshman) Alyssa Beckerman* (freshman)
Yvonne Tousek (freshman, Canada – team finished ninth)
Softball Christie Ambrosi (’99) Jen Brundage (’95) Sheila
(Cornell) Douty (’84) Lisa Fernandez (’93) Stacey Nuveman (junior)
Dot Richardson (’83) Amanda Freed* (junior) Kerry Dienelt (’91,
Australia) Tanya Harding (’95, Australia) Swimming Marilyn
Chua (Malaysia) – 50 freestyle – placed 3rd in heat Men’s
Volleyball (team finished eleventh) Dan Landry (’93) Jeff Nygaard
(’95) Erik Sullivan (’95) Rowing (team finished
sixth) Sally Scovel (’96) Men’s Soccer Brad Friedel (’92)
Frankie Hejduk (’94) Peter Vagenas (’99) Sasha Victorine (’99)
Women’s Soccer Jillian Ellis (Asst. Coach) David Vanole
(Asst. Coach) Joy Fawcett (former UCLA coach) Nandi Pryce*
(freshman) Men’s Water Polo (team finished sixth) Dan
Hackett (’91) Sean Kern (senior) Women’s Water Polo (team
finished second) Guy Baker (coach) Robin Beauregard (junior)
Nicolle Payne (’98) Coralie Simmons (’00) Catharine von Schwarz*
(’00) Tennis Mark Knowles (Bahamas) – made it to doubles
quarterfinals Track & Field Amy Acuff (’97) – high jump
– did not make finals Andrea Anderson (’98) – 4x400m relay Shelia
Burrell (’95) – heptathlon – placed 26th overall Gail Devers (’88)
– 100m hurdles – pulled out with injured hamstring in semifinals
John Godina (’95) – discus & shot put (medal in shot put)
Mebrahtom Keflezighi (’98), 10,000m – placed 12th overall Suzy
Powell (’98) – discus – did not make finals Seilala Sua (’00) –
discus – placed 10th overall Ato Boldon (’96), – Trinidad &
Tobago – 100m & 200m (silver in 10m, bronze in 200m) Nada Kawar
(’98, Jordan) – shot put – did not make finals Men’s Beach
Volleyball Kevin Wong (’95) – made it to the quarter finals Bjorn
Maaseide (’90, Norway) Women’s Beach Volleyball – both US
teams made it to the quarter finals Annett (Buckner) Davis (’94)
Jenny Johnson Jordan (’95) Holly McPeak (’90) SOURCE:
Sports Info *signifies alternate
Original by JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by CHRISTINE
TAN