By Diamond Leung and Greg
Schain
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Many Bruin teams had their schedules thrown out of whack when
the Athletic Department was forced to cancel games in the week
following the September 11 attacks.
Most athletic personnel, including associate athletic director
Betsy Stephenson, at first didn’t know how to reschedule
missed games, or even if they would be rescheduled at all.
But as the time since the tragedy passed, individual teams, in
conjunction with the Pac-10 conference office, arranged their
schedules so that travel was not too difficult.
“With respect to the tragedy, every institution needed to
make decisions based on their own travel scenarios,”
Stephen-son said.
The women’s soccer team was scheduled to play in a
tournament at the University of San Diego, but the tourney was
cancelled when Tennessee and Clemson pulled out because they
elected not to fly to the West Coast.
“We lost two games, but it didn’t really affect us.
It just gave us more time in between games,” UCLA
women’s soccer head coach Jillian Ellis said.
The team has beaten James Madison and William & Mary since
the cancellation of the tournament.
The Sept. 15 gridiron showdown between UCLA and Arizona State at
the Rose Bowl was also postponed.
Head coach Bob Toledo was upset when he first found out that his
team wasn’t playing that weekend.
“Bye weeks are great when you are banged up and beat
up,” Toledo said in a conference call. “But when you
are rolling along (like we were), you’d rather not have
it.”
The football team recovered nicely from the abrupt bye week,
reeling off back-to-back wins against Ohio State and Oregon
State.
The game against ASU will be made up on Dec. 1. Tickets for the
Sept. 15 game will be valid at the gate on gameday.
Meanwhile, the men’s water polo team had a match against
Princeton and a tournament at USC the week after the tragedy. Both
have been cancelled and will not be made up.
The women’s volleyball team had to rearrange its schedule,
postponing a trip to Oregon and Oregon State until November. A
November match at Pepperdine was moved up to Oct. 30.