Daily Bruin File Photo Sophomore Sarah-Gayle
Swanson runs past a Fresno State defender last season.
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Reporter
It’s said that power moves west, but this weekend, the
country’s newest soccer power heads east when No. 2 UCLA
takes on James Madison (3-3-1) and No. 22 William & Mary
(5-0-1) in Virginia.
For the 5-0 Bruins, the trip caps a string of seven consecutive
road games to begin the season and provides an opportunity to play
two solid national contenders on the road.
“They’re two teams that annually get into the
playoffs, and William and Mary is probably the best school in their
conference,” UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said.
“They’re two out-of-conference, out-of-region games
that will help us at the end of the year.”
The games in many ways serve as microcosms for the shift in
power in women’s college soccer as a whole. James Madison and
William and Mary are small, East Coast schools with long soccer
traditions. Gigantic UCLA, on the other hand, is only in the ninth
year of its program and prior to last season’s appearance in
the NCAA Finals had yet to receive any kind of substantial national
recognition.
What a difference a decade makes.
“Every team wants to beat us now,” said senior
forward Stephanie Rigamat. “We’re not the hunters, but
the hunted. It makes it harder, but it makes the wins
sweeter.”
Ellis was surprised to learn that many of her born-and-bred
California players had never heard of their two opponents, who are
staples of the old guard of eastern seaboard teams.
“It’s kind of funny because I’m from the East
Coast and these schools are kind of revered back there,” said
Ellis, who starred as a forward at William and Mary from 1984 to
1987. “But I like the fact that they are going in there with
an open mind.”
In the formative stages of the UCLA program, such a road trip
might have struck fear in the eyes of Bruin players, but after the
landmark 2000 season and this year’s undefeated start, the
confident Bruins no longer find themselves as upset, hungry
underdogs.
The preseason favorite to win the Pac-10, UCLA has outshot the
opposition 129-40 and averaged nearly 3.5 goals per game. The loss
of star sophomore forward Lindsay Greco to a season-ending ACL
injury has only revealed the Bruins’ staggering depth. Senior
Staci Duncan, a two-time All-Pac-10 selection, stepped in admirably
in the Sept. 21 win at UC San Diego.
“They were big shoes to fill, and she was having a great
year, but I’m ready for it,” Duncan said.
Ellis said Duncan’s strong play allows the Bruins to stay
in the 3-2-2-3 formation that has provided pressure on both ends of
the field. Five years ago, an injury to a player like Greco may
have signaled the death knell for UCLA. In 2001, however, the
Bruins travel across the country prepared to show a couple of
college soccer’s more storied programs what all the fuss is
about in Westwood.