DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Seniors Venus
James (left) and Tracey Milburn have
become good friends at UCLA, and are also a formidable force during
game time.
By Mayar Zokaei
Daily Bruin Contributor
One is out of this world, and one is just happy to be in the
Bruin world.
Together, Venus James and Tracey Milburn form the nucleus of
what could be UCLA’s best chance at a women’s soccer
national championship ever.
The two seniors embark on a fantastic voyage of sorts, hoping to
parlay their penchant for soccer and the bitter taste of defeat
left over from last year into a quarterfinal victory over Texas
A&M this Sunday.
“I’m not looking at this weekend as my final college
soccer game,” James said. “If we play like we’ve
been playing, and be unstoppable, we have a great chance to go
far.”
She hesitates, and for those familiar with the No. 10-ranked
UCLA women’s soccer team, it’s obvious why. The shock
and disappointment of last year’s 7-0 pounding by Santa Clara
in the Sweet 16 lingers like Halloween candy for the Bruins.
With Milburn, who played at Pepperdine her freshman year after
garnering a scholarship following just one season of soccer in 12th
grade, anything more than just donning the UCLA blue and gold is
greater than anything she could have imagined.
“After our elite-eight squad (in 1997), this team is
probably the best we’ve ever had,” Milburn said.
“I came to UCLA to do a lot better, and with Coach (Jillian)
Ellis, it’s been better than I thought.”
UCLA (16-3-1) is in the NCAA tournament for the fourth
consecutive year, but should the duo fall short in their pursuit,
there won’t be too many tears to dispense.
James and Milburn played a combined five different sports in
high school, accumulating more letters than a can of alphabet
soup.
College has been no different.
 Daily Bruin File Photo Venus James
Milburn tinkered with the idea of playing with the basketball team
at UCLA, making the final cuts in 1998 before encountering
transfer-eligibility encumbrances. James has competed for the UCLA
track squad, qualifying for the Pac-10 championships in the triple
jump last season.
The accolades and achievements are common and incessant, but the
two travelled very different roads to get to UCLA.
Milburn, who is in a three-way tie for most points on the team
(30) and who finished second for UCLA the previous two seasons, was
named Pac-10 player of the year this week after earning first-team
conference honors least season.
James, who has 14 points this season, was an All-Pac-10
selection last year and the Bruins’ fourth-best scorer. This
year, she notched the final goal in UCLA’s 3-0 victory over
USC in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday.
Milburn grew up in Ohio and hasn’t stopped smiling ever
since her mother told her they “were moving west, which meant
no snow and soccer year-round.”
She has numerous pre-game and game rituals and is very
superstitious, yet she wears jersey No. 13.
James, named after the Roman goddess of love by her father, came
to UCLA because she “wanted to go to a school in a big
city,” even though she grew up in Oakland.
The minute she heard the head-coaching position at UCLA was open
after Todd Saldaña left for the vacant men’s position,
the normally reserved James starting lobbying for UCLA to get
Ellis, whom she played for on the U.S. Under-21 National Team.
“When they were hiring Jill, Venus really wanted
her,” said assistant coach Lisa Shattuck, who has been on the
staff since the duo’s sophomore season.
Shattuck, who has been with the players one more season than
Ellis, has seen the two stars reach cosmic levels of play and life
during her three seasons.
“They both have grown a lot, as people and as
players,” Shattuck said.
 Daily Bruin File Photo Tracey
Milburn
"Tracey is a completely different player than she was when she
first came here," she added. “She has blossomed.
“And Venus, she’s playing at the top of her game,
they both are. We are all clicking, and that is why our team is so
good this year.”
James and Milburn both plan on pursuing professional careers in
soccer, either as players in the newly formed Spring 2001
Women’s United Soccer Association, an eight-team soccer
league with California teams in San Diego and San Francisco, or
overseas.
Both mention their fathers as important figures in their
athletic careers. Milburn’s father is a basketball coach at
her old high school, where Milburn played under him, and
James’ has thoroughly supported her in her quest for athletic
excellence.
James came into this season with 26 goals; Milburn had 25.
And neither deny that their play has peaked, which in turn, has
piqued their interest in a national title.
“We’re playing so well, it’s amazing,”
James said. “The freshmen are just great.
“I just wish it wouldn’t be ending this year. I want
just one more year, because the majority of the lineup is coming
back, and we’re going to be better.”
Milburn agrees.
“We have a lot of freshmen that came in, and losing to
Santa Clara is good motivation for the rest of us,” she
said.
As two storied careers reach their last chapter, UCLA hopes for
an outcome and future that is just as successful as the leaders
that brought them here.