EDWARD LIN Stephanie Rigamat leaves USC
players behind her in a game earlier this month. The Bruins ended
the weekend with one win and a loss. Women’s
Soccer UCLA d. Washington State 1-0
Washington d. UCLA 1-0
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Contributor
The window of opportunity for the No. 7 UCLA women’s
soccer team opened up Friday night and slammed shut Sunday
afternoon.
The Bruins (12-2-1, 3-1-1 Pac-10) held on for dear victory
Friday night in a pouring Pullman rainstorm to defeat Washington
State 1-0, as senior forward Tracey Milburn scored her twelfth goal
of the season one minute and five seconds into the game. The Bruin
defense did the rest.
UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis expected a defensive struggle,
especially as the field became water-logged.
“I know that Washington State has had some great
results,” she said. “They’re a very stingy team
in the sense that they don’t give up a lot of goals. It was a
very wet day and hard for us to possess.”
Washington State head coach Dan Tobias knows the danger of
falling behind early in a Pac-10 game.
“We say all the time that with our conference, the margin
for error is next to nothing and the lapse in the first minute
ended up being the game-winner,” he said in a statement.
Bruin goalkeeper CiCi Peterson was busier than usual in net. The
Cougars (10-5-0, 2-3-0 Pac-10) fired 13 shots, eight of which came
in the second half.
“I thought the positive thing was that we made some
adjustments at the half. I thought we had four clear-cut quality
chances in the second half that we didn’t finish,”
Tobias said.
The Bruins tried for 19 shots, almost three below their season
average.
Meanwhile, across the state in Seattle, No. 3 Washington scored
in the 57th minute and withstood a feverish Southern Cal attack to
down the Trojans, 1-0.
The USC loss placed the Bruins in sole possession of second
place in the Pac-10 and in prime position to take the conference
lead with a win over the first-place Huskies on Sunday.
Unexpectedly, the Bruins dominated every facet of the game
against the Pac-10’s top squad. Despite out-shooting
Washington 25-3, the Bruins lost, 1-0, when Tami Bennett’s
goal in the 4th minute of overtime found the inside of the left
post.
“This is the best one,” Bennett said in a statement.
“Doing this against an opponent like UCLA makes it
special.”
Ellis couldn’t hide her frustration.
“We outplayed them. We outshot them,” Ellis said.
“It’s a tough loss for us because we were definitely
the better team on the day. We had a breakdown and they
capitalized.”
Only five of UCLA’s 25 shots were on goal, and Husky
goalie Hope Solo was equal to the task.
A school-record crowd of 3,403 jammed Husky Soccer Field to see
its team pull out the heart-stopper.
The Huskies moved to 6-0 in conference play with the wins over
UCLA and USC and lengthened their school-record winning streak to
nine games. They now find themselves a full game ahead of the rest
of the teams in the conference.
So much for the Pac-10 title. A win would have vaulted the
Bruins into sole possession of first place, but the loss places
Washington in control.
“This result ranks up there as one of my best as a
coach,” Washington head coach Lesle Gallimore said in a
statement. “I was going to be happy with a tie because that
still kept us in the driver’s seat for the Pac-10
championship, but to get the victory is just a thrill.”
Next week, the Bruins play host to Stanford and California in
games that will determine seeding and regions in the NCAA
tournament.
As for Washington, Ellis hopes to meet them again.
“I would love to have another crack at them in the
NCAAs,” she said.