EDWARD LIN Krista Boling streaks past a
Marquette player in a 5-1 win. The Bruins also tied USC 1-1 on
Sunday. UCLA 1 USC 1
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Contributor
The women’s soccer teams from UCLA and USC played their
respective hearts out for 120 minutes Sunday afternoon, but neither
will be able to claim supremacy until next season.
The No. 5 Bruins (9-1-1, 0-0-1 Pac-10) and the No. 21 Trojans
(8-1-2, 0-0-1 Pac-10) played to a physically draining and mentally
exhausting 1-1 stalemate before 1,351 at the Los Angeles
Coliseum.
The Bruins had all of the opportunities early in the first half,
but it was Southern Cal that first lit up the scoreboard in the
22nd minute with a rebound goal by Jessica Edwards.
Prior to the Trojan goal, the Bruins rang two shots off of the
goalposts and kept the ball in the USC zone for the brunt of the
time but had nothing to show for it, much to the chagrin of head
coach Jillian Ellis.
“In the first half we created some chances, but
that’s the sign of a good team,” she said.
“You’ve got to finish those. So we talked about that at
halftime. We didn’t it want it to be a
“˜woulda-coulda-shoulda’ kind of deal.”
There was a feeling that it would only be a matter of time
before one of the Bruin chances would land in the net, and in the
69th minute, it did. Freshman Lindsay Greco parked one in the left
side of the net after a convoy of four Bruin forwards sliced
through the Trojan defense.
UCLA outshot USC 30-14 but could muster only one goal. The lack
of capitalization disappointed Greco.
“I thought we should have done better. It feels like a
loss,” she said. “I thought we were the better team. We
had more opportunities.”
After 90 minutes of regulation without a winner, the teams were
noticeably lethargic as the pace of the game turned from frantic to
sluggish.
“Whenever these teams get together, it’s a
war,” USC head coach Jim Millinder said. “(When
overtime began) I said, “˜the game is about guts right now.
Everybody’s tired, but mentally you’ve got to prepare
yourself because it could be another 30 minutes,’ which it
was today.”
Both teams moved the ball into the opposing zone well in the two
overtime periods, but it was the Bruins who were unable to score
off of two direct kicks from Tracey Milburn, the second sailing
just above the crossbar.
“Both teams created a lot of chances, and it’s just
a knock-down-drag-out, which it usually is with these two
teams,” Ellis said. “I think any time you play against
a good team, it stretches us. We now know that we have to play well
to get results.”
UCLA was once again unable to win at USC, something the team
hasn’t done since 1994. Ellis said the tie means that her
team will have to win the rest of its games to win the Pac-10.
In the first of its two weekend matches, UCLA disposed of
Marquette 5-1 Friday night at Spaulding Field behind goals from
five different players.
Milburn, Breana Boling, Stephanie Rigamat, Brittany Whalen and
Staci Duncan all joined in on the scoring brigade as the Bruins
closed out the non-conference season with their ninth consecutive
win.
“The level doesn’t drop when we make subs,”
UCLA assistant coach Lisa Shattuck said. “It’s a luxury
that we have and we’re utilizing it.”
Junior goalkeeper CiCi Peterson gave up her first goal in her
last seven games, but the Bruins had already jumped out to a 4-0
lead over the Golden Eagles.
After a frustrating start to the conference season with the tie
against the Trojans, UCLA returns home next weekend for matches
against Oregon State and Oregon.